The Chinese New Year holiday is a great time to travel. Recently, outbound tourism has entered a peak period, and many countries have taken this opportunity to release favorable policies to Chinese tourists. At the same time, the implementation of five measures to facilitate foreign personnel to come to China and China's unilateral visa exemption for some countries have also allowed more foreign tourists to come to China to experience the authentic atmosphere of the Spring Festival.
The Spring Festival holiday in the Year of the Dragon ushered in the first peak of travel in 2024. China Railway Group revealed that on the first day of the Lunar New Year, the national railway sent 556 passengers50,000 person-times; On the second day of the Lunar New Year, the national railway is expected to send 9.2 million passengers, and plans to open 241 additional passenger trains.
Shenzhen Satellite TV Direct News noticed that "watching the snow in the north" and "going south to avoid the cold" have become the two key words of domestic tourism. Especially last year, Harbin's popularity was "out of the circle", and ice and snow tourism was favored. The data shows that Harbin, Yabuli, Mohe and other Spring Festival group tour products were basically sold out in mid-December last year. In addition, the booking popularity of destinations with warm climates such as Hainan, Guangdong and Guangxi has also increased significantly compared with last year's Spring Festival.
Source: Harbin Ice and Snow World***
This year's Spring Festival outbound tourism has also climbed to the peak in recent years. Before the National Immigration Administration, the average daily number of customs clearance at ports across the country during the Spring Festival holiday will reach 1.8 million, an increase of about 3 compared with last year's Spring Festival3 times, which is comparable to the inbound and outbound traffic of the Spring Festival in 2019. According to other data, the total number of outbound travel groups during the Spring Festival increased by more than 50% compared with last year's "National Day" holiday, and the number of travelers increased by 45%.
Shen Jiani, a senior researcher at a travel platform research institute, said that outbound travel orders will increase by more than 10 times year-on-year, and in general, this year's outbound travel hotel market is expected to usher in the hottest in five years.
Chinese tourists' outbound travel has shown a trend of diversification.
The skyrocketing popularity of outbound travel is closely related to the continuous expansion of China's visa-free "circle of friends". So far, China has concluded visa exemption agreements covering different passports with 157 countries, agreements or arrangements with 44 countries on visa simplification, and full visa exemption with 23 countries, including Thailand, Singapore, Maldives and the United Arab Emirates. In addition, more than 60 countries and regions have granted visa-free or visa-on-arrival convenience to Chinese citizens.
February 9 is the first day of entry into force of the China-Singapore Agreement on Mutual Visa Exemption for Ordinary Passport Holders, and some Chinese tourists have begun to use the Visa Waiver Agreement to enter Singapore and enjoy the speed and convenience brought by the visa exemption.
Wang Hongbo, a tourist from China, said that they filled out the electronic arrival card online in advance, three days in advance, and it was very convenient to enter the customs.
In addition, international routes are also continuing to recover, so that the radius of tourists' destination selection is also expanding, long-term outbound travel has become a major feature of this year's Spring Festival holiday, and a number of new outbound travel destinations such as Northern Europe, Egypt, and Morocco are rising rapidly. The latest figures show a 500% increase in the number of Chinese tourists visiting Northern Europe, and a whopping 550% increase in the number of visitors to Australia and New Zealand.
Many countries are "scrambling" for Chinese tourists, and they have released favorable policies.
In order to welcome the "return" of Chinese tourists, many countries have seized the opportunity of the Spring Festival holiday and launched a series of targeted and favorable measures. ASEAN has launched Southeast Asia Tourism Chinese**. Thailand's Minister of Tourism and Sports also held the first live broadcast of Thailand tourism in 2024 for Chinese tourists.
Martin Nidegger, director of the Swiss National Tourism Administration, "shouted" in Chinese in an interview with China**, welcoming Chinese tourists to Switzerland for sightseeing. Behind Niedger's "shouting" is the importance of Chinese tourists to the Swiss tourism industry. In his view, the growing spending power and demand of Chinese tourists have injected strong impetus into the global tourism market.
Norway has also joined the race for Chinese tourists, hosting a series of cultural events for this purpose. Norway's ambassador to China, Mr. Besina, said that in recent years, Norway has become a popular destination for Chinese tourists, and Norway's beautiful natural scenery has attracted many people to visit. Besna also encouraged Norwegians to come to China, saying that China is a vast country that is worth exploring and discovering more about China.
Foreign tourists come to China to experience the strong atmosphere of the Chinese New Year.
The recent introduction of entry facilitation measures has also attracted a large number of foreigners to visit China. Some foreign tourists want to feel the atmosphere of the Spring Festival in China, and "chinatr**el" has become a hot search word for overseas social networking. According to the latest data, the number of inbound travel orders during the Spring Festival increased by more than 10 times year-on-year, and the main source countries were Japan, the United States, South Korea, Malaysia, Australia, the United Kingdom, etc.
The most popular destination for overseas tourists is "Erbin", and many foreign netizens lamented: "Magical and beautiful place", "I would love to go there".
Foreign from ** blogger Barrett.
Barrett, a foreign blogger, said he had seen Harbin many times before, but this time he finally came, and he said it was exciting and even better than he imagined.
After the visa exemption policy was relaxed, Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an and other places are almost a must-choose place for foreigners to travel to China. For example, about 140 visitors from countries such as Singapore and Malaysia celebrated the arrival of the New Year in Shanghai. Popular cities such as Beijing and Xi'an have a long history and rich cultural heritage, and foreign tourists are attracted by the ancient buildings, museums, cultural districts and historical monuments of these cities.
Author丨Lin Shuqi, Zhang Yu, Shenzhen Satellite TV direct news editor.