Overseas travel agencies bullish on China's inbound tourism

Foreign tourists pose for a photo in Yongshun, Hunan province, on Nov 7. (Chen Sihan/Xinhua)

Overseas travel agencies are raring to tap into the Chinese tourism market's potential as the country's positive policies continue to sweeten the deals being offered.

Sanne Prestegaard, a travel consultant from Sinex Travel in Copenhagen, Denmark, recently had a mishap that turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

Prestegaard had planned to visit Shanghai for the China International Travel Mart, which was held from Nov 22 to 24. She applied for a visa in early November and encountered a few hassles.

"I tried to apply online from home, but I had problems with the visa application system accepting the photos I had taken, so I gave up and decided to go to the visa center on Nov 8," she recalled.

Although Prestegaard had prepared what she considered was the correct visa application material — including copies of her documents and her profile photos — she still fell short of meeting all the requirements as she had failed to provide details of her flight tickets.

"They had not been issued yet, so I was supposed to go back the following Monday," she said.

However, later that day she heard the news that China had extended its visa-free policy to nine countries, namely: Slovakia, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Andorra, Monaco, Liechtenstein, and South Korea, starting Nov 8.

"I was so happy and lucky," Prestegaard said about the visa-free entry, adding that it saved her both time and money.

Liu Laila, who has arranged trips for Danes to China for about three decades, is excited about the latest policy.

"I clearly feel there is a recovery after the pandemic, but the number of Danish tourists coming to China is still not large enough," said Liu who joined the travel mart event in Shanghai to explore new destinations for her customers.

"The challenge we face is that there are fewer flight routes to China, and flight ticket prices have risen, especially during peak seasons," she added.

Inbound travelers visit a gift shop at a mountain scenic spot in Quanzhou, Fujian province. (Yang Feiyue/China Daily)

Danish delight

The former visa policy was not making it easier for Danes to travel to China.

Denmark has more than 400 islands, with about 70 inhabited. In a complex procedure, some travelers had to drive from island to island to complete their China visa application. The cost of the visa was nearly 1,000 yuan ($137.50), Liu said.

With these restrictions removed, Liu said she is now going to "roll up her sleeves" to try and introduce more visitors to China. "The Danish people have some of the best-paid vacations, which are a huge incentive for them to travel," she said.

Liu witnessed Danish travelers' enthusiasm for China when she first went to Denmark in the 1980s.

"I was working as a teacher at an adult education center then, and whenever I showed the students my pictures from China, they were intrigued and asked me if I could show them around one day," she recalled.

This inspired her to found her travel business in 1993.

Over the years, she has taken her Danish clients to major Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Xi'an in Shaanxi province. All of them gave her positive feedback about their experiences, she said.

She later led trips to the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in the south and Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, which were also well-received by the visitors.

"Most of them were blown away by what China has to offer, which was quite refreshing to them, very different from what they had read or heard back at home," she said.

Even during the pandemic, Liu said she was approached by many acquaintances who kept asking her when she was going to resume arranging trips to China.

This time, Liu brought several Danish colleagues on the China tour. They were all impressed by the Bund in Shanghai, the folk customs, and the urban and natural scenery in Fujian province, she said.

Next year marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Denmark, and Liu said she is looking forward to playing a positive role in boosting bilateral exchanges by arranging more visits by Danish travelers and artists.

On Tuesday, China announced further relaxations of the visa-free transit policy, with an extension of foreign travelers' period of stay, and expansion of the list of accessible ports and provincial-level regions.

Eligible travelers transiting to a third country or region will be permitted to stay in the country for up to 240 hours, or 10 days, up from 72 or 144 hours, the National Immigration Administration said.

Earlier, during the travel mart in Shanghai, China released favorable policies to boost inbound tourism.

The visa-exemption policy was extended to nine more countries, including Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, and Japan, and will run from Nov 30 to the end of 2025.

The country has also decided to further optimize the visa-free policy, including exchanges and visit purposes into the visa-free entry scope, and extending the period of visa-free stays from 15 to 30 days.

These measures now enable ordinary passport holders from 38 countries to enter China without a visa for business, tourism, visiting relatives and friends, exchange visits, and transit for no more than 30 days.

China will continue to facilitate cross-border travel, welcoming people from all countries to visit and experience its diverse charm and share in its development dividends, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said in November.

Mao said that China has also taken measures to make work and life more convenient and comfortable for foreigners residing in China. Cities and provinces such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong have improved their mobile payment, bank card, and cash services, as well as others that increase the ease of online shopping and transportation for foreign visitors.

She also noted that Chinese telecom operators have improved foreign services and launched new packages to make it more convenient for foreign visitors to access 5G networks in the country.

Foreign entries into China reached 8.19 million in the third quarter of this year, an increase of 48.8 percent year-on-year, according to statistics from the National Immigration Administration. Among these, more than 4.8 million visits were made by travelers with visa exemptions, up 78.6 percent compared with the same period last year.

Yang Wenjuan, who is in charge of marketing for the German travel agency China Event and who participated in the Shanghai travel mart, was thrilled by the news of the 30-day stays.

As Germany has been one of the biggest European sources of visitors to China, Yang believes the prolonged period will allow her clients to better explore the country.

"If a guest really likes China, they will surely prefer to stay for at least three weeks," said Yang, who has worked in Germany's outbound tourism business to China since the 1990s.

Yang was among 14 major tour operators invited by China's tourism office in Frankfurt, Germany, to explore business opportunities at the Shanghai travel mart.

Many of them established contact with their Chinese counterparts and will work on tours such as desert trips to Dunhuang, Gansu province, and exploring the shoreline in Hainan province, according to the tourism office.

Yang has noticed an improvement in her tourism business since last year, when China granted visa-free entry to German ordinary passport holders and five other countries.

"There are many people who planned to visit but couldn't do so during the pandemic, so this group has been seeking our services," Yang said.

She has seen a shift in German travelers' interest from major cities to lesser-known destinations that feature distinctive culture and folk customs, such as traditional Chinese medicine and local cuisine. There has also been a significant increase in the number of independent travelers.

"I've had interactions with many partners in China during this trip, and I'm optimistic, because I think there are still many experiences that can be recommended to German tourists that will boggle their minds," Yang said.

She plans to develop a Silk Road trip that takes in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and Zhangye, Gansu province, an important stop on the ancient route.

Tourists from Russia visit the Bund in Shanghai on Dec 4. (Chen Haoming/Xinhua)

Surging interest

He Laiqiang, who runs the travel consultation service Sada International in Osaka, Japan, said the policy to resume and also extend visa-free entry is long overdue and will help open up the Japanese outbound tourism market.

China has already done a good job in promoting attractions such as the Wulingyuan scenic area in Zhangjiajie, Hunan province, the Silk Road, and pandas in Sichuan province, he said, adding that many young Japanese have a strong interest in visiting the country.

In addition, many Japanese companies have run businesses in China since its opening-up, with a number of their nationals living in the country before returning home.

"Generally, they got to stay for two years before their replacement would arrive, and those people have been wanting to come back and revisit China," said He, who has worked in the tourism industry in Japan since the 1980s.

The visa-free policy will save Japanese travelers from not only the visa application fees, but also the complex procedure involved. "There was a lot to fill in on the application form, and many had to hire a professional agency to get things done," He said.

Now that the Chinese government has smoothed the way, He said the key is to look at more travel routes.

He said he has developed a better understanding of Chinese travel products through meeting local tour operators, who he hopes to introduce to his clients in Japan.

Irina Antonova, a senior executive at Russian Tour, believes more tour guides who speak Russian are needed in China, especially at popular smaller destinations.

"The number of our guests is increasing every year, and they feel their Chinese experiences are increasingly comfortable, and the services are getting better," said Antonova, who started bringing Russian travelers to China in 2020.

She assisted more than 3,000 travelers to visit China last year, many of whom said they enjoyed interactions with Chinese people as well as the vast natural landscape.

"They loved arrangements where they could cook and eat with the locals, or engage in a handicraft class," she said.

"We've already got bookings for next year from more than 1,000 people," she added.

Antonova wants to collaborate with local travel agencies to create diverse tours tailored to Russian travelers.

Looking for partners

Rolf Blomkvist, a travel operator from Sweden, said he found potential partners for a future tourism business in China when he attended the Shanghai travel mart, and during an ensuing trip to Fujian province.

"So far, I have had very good experiences meeting new people who are open-minded," he said.

In the early 2000s, he ran a booming business sending Swedish travelers to China.

"It rapidly grew bigger and bigger and it was very successful," Blomkvist recalled.

Yet, things got problematic after 2008, due to geopolitical factors, and he gradually lost the business.

Since China has sent out signals to welcome inbound travelers, Blomkvist said it has rekindled his hope of resuming his tourism business.

"All the itineraries are there, and I just need to find reliable partners here," he said.

With the 240-hour visa-free transit policy for Swedish travelers, Blomkvist said he can work with tour operators to combine China travel experiences with other trips in Southeast Asia.

In addition to doing business, Prestegaard, the travel consultant from Denmark, ended up having a great time in China, when she visited Fujian province.

She was especially impressed by a bamboo-rafting journey along the Nine-Bend stream in Wuyi Mountain and the leisurely lifestyle at the picturesque site.

"I loved it, it was magnificent. The views of the mountains, I had never seen anything like that. It was like being in a dream," she said.