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Multiple Provinces, Ports Record Rise in Cross-boundary Travel in Q1

2025-04-07

Chinese and foreign tourists view cherry blossoms in full bloom at Huancheng park in Xi'an, capital city of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province on April 1, 2025. Shaanxi received 467,700 inbound tourists in 2024, an increase of 77 percent year-on-year, per official data. Photo: VCG

Multiple provincial bureaus and ports have reported remarkable spikes in cross-boundary travel during the first quarter of 2025. Experts attributed this surge mainly to China's updated visa policies, particularly the expansion of visa exemptions introduced to boost global mobility.

With China's further opening-up, the number of foreigners coming for business, tourism and visits has increased. Multiple figures showed that China's tourism market is seeing stable development, mainly boosted by support policies to spur cross-border travel, and the growing tourism sector will fuel economic growth in the second quarter, Jiang Yiyi, an expert on sports and tourism at Beijing Sport University, told the Global Times on Sunday.

For example, ports in Central China's Hunan Province have so far this year recorded 170,000 inbound and outbound trips by foreign nationals, up by 13 percent year-on-year, and more than 80,000 of them were made under the visa-free policy, an increase of 200 percent year-on-year compared with before the policy was put in place, according to the border inspection station. The majority of these travelers hailed from South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, mainly entering for tourism, business and visits, local media outlets reported on Saturday.

Statistics from the Shaanxi exit-entry border inspection authorities showed that Xi'an port in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province recorded 460,000 inbound and outbound passenger trips in the first three months of 2025, a 77 percent increase from the same period last year. The number of entry-exit flights exceeded 3,600, up by 87 percent year-on-year. The number of foreigners entering through unilateral visa exemptions, mutual visa agreements and the visa-free transit policy exceeded 38,000, with year-on-year increase of 352 percent. Additionally, the number of flights and passengers traveling between Xi'an and Central Asian regions continued to rise, local media reported.

Border authorities in Shanghai inspected 10.153 million entries and exits and 72,000 vehicles including planes, ships and trains, increases of 27 percent and 18 percent respectively, year-on-year. Entry-exit numbers reached nearly 90 percent of the levels seen in 2019, according to thepaper.cn on Saturday.

Comparable momentum has been reported in several other major Chinese cities.

The figures indicated that China has made significant efforts to optimize its entry-exit policies, such as streamlining visa procedures, expanding unilateral visa-free policies and enhancing multilingual services, effectively boosting the country's appeal to international tourists, according to Jiang.

Recent months witnessed a packed agenda in China's visa facilitation measures and a continuous variety of events involving people-to-people exchanges, aiming to promote inbound tourism, facilitate business exchanges and enhance China's global openness.

According a Xinhua News Agency report, China's visa-free transit policies have undergone continuous adjustment and optimization since November 2023. The implementation of the country's latest 240-hour visa-free transit policy at the end of last year has boosted inbound tourism significantly.

As of last month, China had granted unilateral visa-free entry to 38 countries and extended the transit visa-free period to 240 hours for 54 countries. "More countries may join our visa-free 'circle of friends,' sustaining the popularity of 'China Travel' around the world," said member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

With streamlined procedures and extended permitted stay durations, international visitors are now able to experience more of China's rich culture and scenic attractions.

"The country's ongoing efforts to ease visa-free policies have attracted a growing number of foreign tourists, providing them with the opportunity to experience the rich cuisine, vibrant culture and beautiful landscapes," Jiang said. This trend serves as a valuable platform for fostering people-to-people exchanges and deepening global understanding of China, she added.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said on April 1 that China will roll out more facilitation measures for cross-border travel. "We will further expand our visa-free 'circle of friends' and roll out more facilitation measures for cross-border travel. We welcome more foreign friends to visit China in this beautiful spring."