Visa-free tourism boosts economy

FOREIGN travelers made 30.54 million trips to China in 2018, a 4.7 percent increase from 2017, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Travelers stayed at least one night in China on 23.64 million of the trips, a growth of 5.2 percent on 2017.

The ministry said foreign travelers spent US$73.1 billion in China last year, 5.1 percent more than in 2017.

Tourists mainly came from South Korea, Japan, the United States, Malaysia and Singapore.

China offers a 24-hour visa-free transit to eligible international travelers, while people of 53 nationalities can enjoy a 144-hour visa-free transit through a number of cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Shijiazhuang and Shenyang.

The country’s southernmost island province of Hainan, which has offered a 15-day visa-free stay for group tourists from more than 20 countries for years, started to allow group and individual visitors from 59 countries to travel visa-free and stay for up to 30 days under certain conditions in May.

China’s tourism industry brought in 5.97 trillion yuan (US$883 billion) in 2018, up 10.5 percent year on year.

According to a preliminary estimation, the domestic tourism industry made an overall contribution of 9.94 trillion yuan to the country’s gross domestic product in 2018, accounting for 11 percent of the total GDP.

The tourism sector created 79.9 million direct and indirect jobs in 2018, accounting for nearly 10.3 percent of the total employed population.

A total of 149.72 million outbound trips were made by Chinese tourists in 2018, up 14.7 percent from the previous year.

Domestic tourist spots are also popular with Chinese residents. The number of domestic trips taken by Chinese travelers exceeded 5.5 billion in 2018, an increase of 10.8 percent year on year.

In 2018, 141.2 million inbound trips were made by tourists from outside the Chinese mainland, a slight increase of 1.2 percent than that of 2017, the ministry said.

The total number of outbound and inbound trips hit 291 million in 2018, up 7.8 percent year on year.

(Xinhua)