China decided to offer visa-free entry to travelers holding ordinary passports from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Malaysia from December 1, 2023, to November 30, 2024.
Announced by the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning.
She said that citizens from those countries are able to enter China without a visa and stay for no more than 15 days for business, tourism, family visits and transit purposes. (source)
Comments:
China visa-free. 🇨🇳✈️🤩 Yes, you’ve heard it China will allow travellers from Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Spain and Malaysia visa-free entry to the country for 15 days starting 1 December. 🤓👇So, will foreign travellers come?
✔️ Today there are just 18 countries that have mutual visa exemptions with China for ordinary passport holders, most of which are developing countries.
✔️ The new visa free policy will be implemented without reciprocal arrangement for Chinese citizens, and will run as a trial for one year, starting next month.
😬 This being said, China’s inbound tourism market's recovery is still a long way off.
✔️ In the first half of 2023, there were only 18 million inbound tourists to China , accounting for just 12% of the same period in 2019.
Those who travelled, visited family and came to China for business. Leisure trips are at its lowest.
✔️ Chinese travel agencies received 477,800 foreign tourists in the first 6 months of 2023, only 5.6% of the same period from 2019.
✔️ In 2019, nearly 32 million foreigners came to China for tourism and spent US$77 billion in the country, according to the official data.
✔️ That year, the combined contribution of the tourism sector – domestic and inbound – to China’s economy was 10.94 trillion yuan (US$1.56 trillion), 11% of the GDP. The biggest contribution by far was, of course, domestic tourism.
🌍 Before the pandemic, South Korea, Russia, Japan, the United States and Australia were the biggest sources of foreign tourists for China.
So, will the foreigners return?
🧳 For sure, some will come, but the recovery will come slowly. Apart from visas, there are many other topics to address for both leisure and business travellers.
🧳 It’s still hard for foreign visitors to use their bank cards and other digital payments, read road signs, make ticket booking and hotel check-ins without local apps and mini programs.
🧳 Many museums, for instance, require you to book your spot on WeChat in advance. Many restaurants only have digital menus in Chinese, and even if they accept cash, they can’t give change. Taxi hailing without an app is tough, too.
✈️ All in all, this is a great first step. Now more needs to be done, and quickly.
✈️ Next year, the hope is that this visa-free arrangement will be extended and expanded to many more countries.
Your take?
Insights visa SCMP
Ashley Dudarenok 艾熙丽
Building The Future of Retail | Learn From China | Digital Transformation & Training Company Owner | Keynote Speaker | Author | LinkedIn Top Voice | Daily China Trends & InsightsBuilding The Future of Retail | Learn From China | Digital Transformation & Training Company Owner | Keynote Speaker | Author | LinkedIn Top Voice | Daily China Trends & Insights
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