Inbound tourism in China has continued to be popular this year thanks to policy support, and new first-tier cities such as Xi'an and Hangzhou have become popular choices for foreign tourists.
"China Tours" have continued to be popular this year, with inbound tourism orders in the first half of the year nearly tripling the same period of last year.
The trend is largely attributed to the country's relaxed visa policies and other encouraging measures, particularly the 144-hour visa-free policy, which allows visitors from 54 countries to enter China and stay for up to 144 hours without a visa for short-term activities.
From January to October, tourists from countries benefiting from the visa-free policy accounted for nearly 30 percent of the total inbound tourism orders, with South Korea, Australia, Germany, France ranking high.
In addition to popular large cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, new first-tier cities including Chengdu, Chongqing, Hangzhou, and Xi'an have also become popular choices for foreign tourists visiting China for the first time.
"Since the beginning of this year, more than 100,000 foreigners have entered China through Xi'an Port, a year-on-year increase of 2.4 times. Among them, more than 40,000 foreigners entered using the visa-free policy, a year-on-year increase of 12 times, and the number of foreigners using the 144-hour visa-free policy increased by three times year on year," said Zhang Tiezhu, a staff member of the Shaanxi Frontier Inspection Station.
At the same time, more and more foreign tourists are visiting China more than once. Judging from inbound air ticket orders, nearly a quarter of inbound tourists have visited China twice or more this year.
New first-tier Chinese cities become hot choices for inbound travelers
