In the context of sluggish domestic demand and a weak economic recovery, in 2024, Beijing unprecedentedly granted visa-free entry to citizens from dozens of countries, aiming to attract 1.9 billion potential foreign tourists to boost China’s struggling economy. However, despite this major effort to attract foreign visitors, especially from Europe and the United States, the plan by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has failed.
Currently, China unilaterally offers visa-free treatment to citizens of 38 countries. Prior to the outbreak of the pandemic, only citizens from Singapore, Japan, and Brunei were eligible for visa-free entry. Additionally, recent policies have expanded visa-free entry for transit passengers to 54 countries.
Tim Bacchus, a senior aviation analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence, stated, “Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Beijing’s policies, and geopolitical factors, the overall appeal of tourism and business in China has been damaged.”
“While visa-free entry has been helpful to some extent, it cannot make up for the fact that people are distancing themselves from China; especially since providing visa-free access to citizens of some countries without reciprocity actually reflects a certain level of desperation,” Bacchus said.
Despite the visa-free measures, the results have not met expectations. As of the first three quarters of last year, the number of tourists to China had only returned to 63% of pre-pandemic levels in 2019, far below the levels needed for a “full recovery,” which was expected to bring in billions of dollars in consumption but fell short of achieving.
According to a study conducted by the World Travel and Tourism Council in collaboration with Oxford Economics, international visitor spending in China peaked at $132 billion in 2019. However, by 2024, foreign spending in China had decreased to $98 billion, a 26% drop.
Despite the CCP granting most visa-free benefits to wealthier European countries, data shows that high-spending American and Western European tourists are not interested in traveling to China. On the contrary, visitors mostly come from neighboring Asian countries and less developed markets.
Reportedly, flight bookings from Germany and France to and from China have decreased by 38%, while bookings from Italy have dropped by 29%.
In terms of foreign visitors to Beijing, from 2019 to 2024, the number of visitors from Germany and France decreased by 27%, the UK by 32%, Sweden by 48%, Switzerland by 49%, and the United States by more than 52%.
Looking at flight booking volumes, China’s main foreign visitors come from Malaysia, Vietnam, and Russia. From 2019 to 2024, the top five countries sending visitors to Beijing were Vietnam, Mongolia, Russia, Malaysia, and Thailand.
Guy Rubin, founder of Imperial Tours, which offers luxury trips across China, noted that currently, less than 40% of his clients are American, compared to around 90% before the pandemic.
Rubin stated, “Americans, in general, are afraid of China.” He added, “While people say they are not influenced by geopolitics, we are very clear that this claim is not true.” Imperial Tours, originally focused solely on China travel, is now including trips to South Korea due to the shifting preferences.
Savanti Travel, a company specializing in booking business trips, used to organize trips to China for international executives but has seen a notable change. The company mentioned, “Many conferences are now being held in Tokyo or Seoul, and after work, these executives also travel to various places in Japan or Bali. The situation has fundamentally changed.”
A survey by the Pew Research Center showed that views of present-day China have shifted, with fewer people in developed countries having positive perceptions of Beijing’s economic influence and military power.
For example, in the case of Japan, the number of Japanese tourists significantly decreased following several incidents. A series of trade disputes erupted between several Western democratic countries and Beijing, while issues like Taiwan and the South China Sea have embroiled the CCP in controversy, dampening the willingness of Western tourists to visit China.
Stringent regulations imposed by the CCP have also made foreign tourists nervous. Due to the arbitrary enforcement of the National Security Law, some foreign citizens have been barred from leaving and subjected to improper detention, prompting travel advisories from the US, Australia, and Taiwan governments.
Setting aside geopolitical tensions, mainland China still poses challenges for foreign tourists. Firstly, even in major cities like Shanghai and Beijing, English is not widely spoken. Additionally, China has its own mobile payment systems, discourages the use of cash, and navigating without a grasp of Chinese characters can make it difficult to use mobile payments. The internet is also subject to stringent censorship, blocking access to websites like Google and Instagram.
(Reference: Bloomberg)