gudugan

China apparently wants foreign tourism, but foreign tourists aren't coming.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/asia-pa...e-staying-away
Inbound tourism saw a slight recovery in the first half, with 52,000 people arriving in mainland China on trips arranged by travel agencies, according to the latest data published by China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism. But the number lags far behind the figure of 4.88 million recorded in the fourth quarter of 2019, shortly before China closed its door to the world in early 2020.
https://archive.is/CDoLP
As in past years, nearly half of the visitors came from the self-ruled island of Taiwan and the Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macau, rather than farther-away places like the U.S. or Europe.

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/flag...-rules-4268014
Those who come to China to participate in trade negotiations, expos, conferences or to invest will be able to obtain visas on arrival, provided they present the necessary documents.
* Unclear which countries from this article, discussion for this is better in a visa thread

Alipay/Wechat linking to international credit cards is definitely a move to increase tourism

Some speculation/discussion

mlin32

I think a lot of the problem stems from the fact that mainland China was the last of the major markets to open up, and thus people already booked their Asian holidays to other places like Thailand, Japan, etc.....

Furthermore, outbound group tours from China have been restricted to only a handful of markets until recently. When little outbound demand, the Chinese carriers were not rapid to expand their fréquences = fewer flights from outside countries to China.

All the points listed in that blog post are valid, but wouldn't turn off a seasoned traveller.

889

There are also the new visa difficulties: have to visit for fingerprinting, have to make an appointment for it long in advance, and have to fill out an exceptionally invasive visa application.

boat stuck

Well, "China" is not a monolithic entity. Like any other county, there's factions with different motives and interests.

The faction that wants more tourists is certainly not the faction that revised the visa application.

gudugan

That's part of the reason. Other reasons I can think of
- China to say it lightly is not treated well in the global press, so people are generally not interested. Includes sentiment about government, HK, etc
- A lot of expats who lived in China left and told their friends not to go
- Students who left China for winter break in the beginning of 2020 largely got stuck outside for years so they told their friends not to go
- Visa requirement deters a lot of people. India gave visa on arrival to US citizens at the end of 2014. Brazil was eVisa/visa free for US citizens for the Olympics and from 2018 to end of September 2023.
- Quarantine requirement during COVID was viewed as overly harsh especially after other countries dropped theirs a long time ago
- Chinese people who live overseas were also not super enthusiastic about the quarantine and many of my friends visited China for the first time this year since 2019

I do NOT think that language barrier, Alipay/WeChat, real name verification, needing a phone number, firewall, foreigners can’t stay at hotel are a problem. All of these other reasons come before that

boat stuck

Visa hassles has to be at the top of the list. Adjusted for GDP, I think the Chinese visa is probably the worst in the world for "how annoying is it to get" for a major country. US visas are more hassle by absolute value, but the all countries in China's peer group (and most higher HDI countries) have better visa policies.

A e-visa system that lets people who just want a 30-day single entry tourist visa skip the consulate visit would do wonders, for example. But there won't be any improvement while the trade/tech war is in progress.

889

Imagine the reaction if you told your friends in 1983 that you were going to spend your vacation visiting China.

Then imagine the reaction if you told them that today.

gudugan

I wasn’t born yet. Enlighten me?

889

1983: "Wow. You're going to CHINA. That sounds cool!"

m.y

While I do agree for first time visitors, those aren't deterrents but for those that have visited China, those barriers would greatly reduce their chance of visiting again, or encourage their family and friends to visit. Don't under estimate the power of word of mouth advertising!

moondog

Based on my observations, they have increased flights at every opportunity, and airfares have plummeted as a result. For example, China-SE Asia flights now cost less than $200 each way. As recently as February, getting down there for less than $1000 was challenging.

mlin32

True, but didn't the gouvernement just recently approve group tours to places like Germany, US, Australia, etc.... and I think France and Italy back a couple months ago. So the foreign tourism from European countries might have been effected. For sure, multiple factors at work here.

moondog

I don't follow the group tour industry, so I don't know; I was responding to the "Chinese carriers were not rapid to expand their frequencies" part of your post because the opposite is the case, regardless of where demand is coming from (i.e. inbound, outbound, business, leisure).

valdor

I think another major issue is that China does very poorly when it comes to exporting its culture. Japan and Korea absolutely dominate the international cultural scene in pretty much every Asian countries I've lived in, and most people as a result want to visit there more than they want to visit China. That is unlikely to change any time soon given how censorship in China severely restricts the development of the cultural scene the country would need to compete.

Duck1981

Still have in my mind that draconic lockdowns can be implemented any minute - thank you, I go to Bali.