China struggles to attract foreign tourists, but is a hard sell for some

By Sophie Yu and Casey Hall

BEIJING (Reuters) – Guilherme Carvalho made his first visit to China this month, and the Italian said one of the main factors behind the trip was the post-pandemic policy of canceling entry permits for some tourists.

Previously, all foreign visitors had to go through the onerous Chinese visa application process. Now, visitors from more than a dozen countries can simply arrive and stay for up to 15 days.

“I didn’t expect to feel so safe,” said Carvalho, who visited Shanghai. “Everyone is so kind.”

Carvalho is not alone. As authorities focus on boosting foreign tourism in a bid to revive the economy and stimulate sluggish consumer spending, thousands of visitors have flocked to China, encouraged by visa policies and easier access to its unique payment services. digital.

On June 24, bookings from several countries under the visa policy, including France, Germany, Italy, Malaysia and Thailand, increased by 150 percent year on year, data from China’s largest online travel agency Trip.com showed.

Reservations for July and August are also expected to be greater.

“We are very excited to see the trend. Many people had some misunderstandings about China before they arrived, but after arriving, they feel that cities like Shanghai are very safe and very clean,” said Jane Sun, CEO of Trip.com .

Since December, China has granted visa-free entry to tourists from several countries, including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia, New Zealand and Poland.

Southeast Asian countries, including Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, have also reached agreements with Beijing to facilitate visa-free travel.

In the week that China announced visa-free travel for visitors from Australia and New Zealand, tour sales increased 133% from the previous week, said Yvette Thompson, general manager of sales and marketing for Australia and New Zealand at the travel agency. Intrepid Travel tourism. .

“Coming out of COVID, visas are just another level of complexity for travelers. So, eliminating that complexity, I think is a good move,” she said.

LONG-TERM RECOVERY

The recent increase in tourism comes after China closed its borders in early 2020 to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, and kept them closed until early 2023.

But even with the boost from the visa-free policy, far fewer tourists are coming to China now than before the pandemic.

According to official tourism data, China received a total of 49.1 million foreign visitors in 2019, with more than a third coming for tourism and leisure. International tourism revenue reached US$131.3 billion that year.

In the first half of 2024, the number of foreigners entering China was much lower, 14.6 million. Among them, 8.5 million entered without a visa, representing just over half of the total, according to the National Immigration Administration.

International tourism revenue data for China has not been published since 2019.

Travel agents say they are hopeful that next year will attract more foreign tourists as global demand for travel and flight schedules recover further to pre-pandemic levels.

However, China needs to do more than just waive visas to encourage foreigners, experts say.

Geopolitical tensions, a government that does not tolerate dissent and the sometimes belligerent portrayal of China in some Western media have kept some tourists away. Last month, two separate knife attacks against foreigners also raised security concerns.

China is also expected to compete for attention with Japan, which is experiencing a boom in tourism thanks to its weak yen.

“The more we talk about the reasons to go to China – the diverse landscapes, the history, the difference between imperial Beijing and futuristic Shanghai – I think the faster the negative PR dissipates,” said travel agent Thomson.

Another potential obstacle for foreigners is China’s vast digital infrastructure.

Payment for everything from transport tickets to restaurant reservations and entrance fees to tourist sites is done via QR codes linked to local payment apps such as WeChat and Alipay, making daily interactions difficult for foreign bank card holders.

China has allowed foreign bank cards to be linked to Alipay and WeChat, but the system and language barriers remain daunting.

“I can’t imagine how a foreigner who doesn’t have Chinese payment tools and doesn’t speak the language can deal with all this,” said Liang Hongling, a Chinese academic living in Glasgow who plans to travel with her Irish husband. to her hometown in Xinjiang this month.

(Reporting by Sophie Yu in Beijing and Casey Hall in Shanghai; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree and Miral Fahmy)