China pavilion promotes inbound tourism, visa facilitation at Arabian Travel Market

The 2025 Arabian Travel Market opened on Monday in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, with the China Pavilion showcasing the country's strong inbound tourism potential.

China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism leads the country's participation at the Arabian Travel Market, the largest professional tourism exhibition in the Middle East and North Africa. 

The China Pavilion brings together cultural and tourism departments from 13 provinces, municipalities, autonomous regions, and 26 tourism-related enterprises, presenting a comprehensive view of China's travel landscape under the theme "Nihao (hello)! China". 

Focusing on business matchmaking between Chinese and international travel operators, the Chinese exhibitors are keen to attract more international visitors by demonstrating their latest upgraded tourism services, cultural experiences, and streamlined visa procedures. The emphasis is placed on three core concepts, "Tourism + Culture," "Tourism + Aviation," and "Tourism + Technology."   

Currently, China grants unilateral visa-free access to citizens of 38 countries and has extended its visa-free transit policy for 54 countries to up to 240 hours. As China's "visa-free circle of friends" continues to expand, inbound tourism is experiencing steady growth.   

"In the past few years, China has optimized a series of visa policies, making it more convenient for foreigners to travel to and do business in the country. I have personally visited China multiple times for business negotiations and have deeply felt the positive changes," said Jasem, a tourism company representative. 

"I think by allowing more and more tourists to come and visit China more freely, it's certainly going to improve the amount of tourists that you end up getting. Myself, I started going to China a few years ago, and I'm trying to get there once or twice a year.  Once you get over a slight language barrier and you get to see all the amazing ancient artifacts that are there, the touristic sites, it's definitely a place that people will come to time and time again," said another tourism company representative James.

China pavilion promotes inbound tourism, visa facilitation at Arabian Travel Market

The death toll from a landfill collapse in the central Philippine city of Cebu has risen to eight by Monday morning as search and rescue operations continued for another 28 missing people.

The landfill collapse occurred on Thursday as dozens of sanitation workers were working at the site. The disaster has already caused injuries of 18 people.

Family members of the missing people said the rescue progress is slow, and the hope for the survival of their loved ones is fading.

"For me, maybe I’ve accepted the worst result already because the garbage is poisonous and yesterday, it was raining very hard the whole day. Maybe they’ve been poisoned. For us, alive or dead, I hope we can get their bodies out of the garbage rubble," said Maria Kareen Rubin, a family member of a victim.

Families have set up camps on high ground near the landfill, awaiting news of their relatives. Some people at the site said cries for help could still be heard hours after the landfill collapsed, but these voices gradually faded away.

Bienvenido Ranido, who lost his wife in the disaster, said he can't believe all that happened.

"After they gave my wife oxygen, my kids and I were expecting that she would be saved that night because she was still alive. But the night came and till the next morning, they didn't manage to save her," he said.

Death toll in central Philippine landfill collapse rises to eight