Inbound China Travel Shifts to Experience-Led Model as Visa-Free Access Expands

Key points

• Foreign visitors to China are shifting from landmark sightseeing to de-attractionised, experience-heavy, whole-area travel, with more multi-city, diverse and in-depth personalised itineraries.
• The National Immigration Administration forecasts average daily inbound and outbound travellers of 2.25 million during the Mid-Autumn holiday and 2.15 million during National Day, with a single-day peak expected to exceed 2.4 million.
• In 2025 Jingdezhen's inbound visitors rose 39.63% year on year and inbound tourism spending rose 44.59%.
• In the first half of this year, 22.914 million foreign nationals entered China, up 20.4%; 17.815 million entered visa-free, 77.7% of the total and up 30.6%.
• From 20 August 2026, China applies a 240-hour transit visa-free policy and Hainan's 30-day visa-free entry to Kyrgyz and Vietnamese citizens; the 240-hour policy covers 57 countries and Hainan's 30-day policy covers 61.
• Industry gaps include inconvenient cross-border payments at some distinctive districts, small shops, county-level cultural tourism merchants and small intangible-heritage outlets, plus a shortage of Russian, Thai and Vietnamese-speaking staff.
• The 15th Five-Year Plan for building a tourism powerhouse calls for comprehensively raising inbound tourism service levels and developing distinctive products centred on local food, traditional crafts, history and culture, technology experiences, wellness, study tours, festivals and shopping.