CCTV News (News Network): With China relaxing and optimizing the transit visa-free policy and successfully applying for the Chinese New Year's World Heritage, the enthusiasm of foreign tourists to China has become increasingly high, becoming a highlight of the 2025 Spring Festival tourism market.
Online travel platform data shows that foreigners who went to China to celebrate the Spring Festival this year increased by 1.5 times year-on-year. Among many tourist destinations, Shanghai has attracted a large number of foreign tourists with its urban image that combines modern and traditional charm. During the Spring Festival, the number of inbound travel orders in Shanghai increased by 93% year-on-year, bringing new highlights to the Shanghai tourism consumption market.
As the popularity of "China travel" increases, the way of travel is also quietly changing: the proportion of large-scale group tours has decreased, and the proportion of free travel and small group custom tours has increased; in addition to traditional popular destinations such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Xi'an, the Chinese tours of foreign tourists have penetrated into the countryside, which has also brought opportunities for rural tourism to expand the international market. Data shows that the number of rural tourism orders from overseas increased by 71% in 2024 compared with the previous year.
Since January this year alone, 15,000 foreign tourists visiting the Wuzhen scenic spot, three times that of the same period last year. During the Spring Festival, the scenic spot starts from the aspects of humanities, facilities, publicity, etc. to clear up bottlenecks and break down difficulties, and provide accurate and efficient tourism reception services for overseas tourists.
During the Spring Festival, a group of foreign tourists from the United States and Australia planned to check in with three days along the high-speed rail line along the high-speed rail line. When night falls, the crane lamps in the hands of craftsmen dance vividly, and a bench dragon that is 100 meters long shuttles through the ancient village, and the scene is particularly spectacular. They use lenses and text to record every novel experience in China.
The "China Travel" is booming, and the most direct promotion comes from the open policy. Up to now, China has achieved comprehensive mutual exemption with 25 countries, piloted unilateral visa-free policies for 38 countries, and implemented transit visa-free policies for 54 countries. Various visa-free policies are coordinated and complemented each other, effectively promoting personnel exchanges between relevant countries and China.
