**AI-generated.
Titanium**Note:This article was published on WeChat*** ChinaTravelDaily (ID: TR**eldaily), by |Hu Biao, Titanium** is authorized to publish. On March 2, the day after the Sino-Thai mutual visa exemption agreement came into effect, Guangzhou Travel ushered in the first visa-free entry group from Thailand, with more than 30 people arriving in Shanghai for a five-day city tour.
The day after the interview with ChinaTravelNews, Fang Fang, the person in charge of the inbound travel business of Guangzhou Tours, posted a photo of a tourist from Thailand visa-free inbound group on Moments early in the morning.
According to Fang Fang, judging from the current effect, the visa-free policy is more attractive to tourists from Southeast Asia.
On the one hand, there are Southeast Asian countries, which are relatively close to China;
On the other hand, most of the tourists from Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore are Chinese, and many can speak Chinese or even Cantonese.
Therefore, after the visa-free policy came out, the inquiry demand in Southeast Asia came immediately, and there was the first group the next day.
However, the same policy lags a little behind for Europeans and Americans who are one-sided and plan-oriented.
Turning the timeline back to November 24, 2023,** China announced that China will implement a unilateral visa exemption policy for ordinary passport holders from six countries: France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Malaysia, for a trial period from December 1, 2023 to November 30, 2024.
An imaginable picture is: on the day of the blockbuster landing, some inbound tourism practitioners took out the champagne that had been stored for three years from the wine cabinet and prepared to drink it all, but after they just took a sip, they began to look embarrassed.
Large travel wholesalers in Europe and the United States will plan the route of tourism products in the coming year at least half a year in advance. In other words, their overall plan for 2024 was actually set as early as June and July 2023. Zhou Xiaoguang, general manager of Guilin Tang Dynasty International Travel Service, told the author.
Once the plan is implemented, it is difficult to turn around.
According to Zhou Xiaoguang's actual observation, after the visa-free policy came out in November last year, the demand for inbound tourism has indeed increased greatly, but there are few large European and American inbound groups.
To make it more vivid, the scene of tour guides waving flags and taking European and American tourists in and out of various scenic spots may not return to the pre-epidemic situation this year.
It is worth mentioning that the six-country visa-free policy lasts for one year and expires at the end of November this year.
After expiration, will it be renewed? When will specific policies be introduced? Inbound tourism operators believe that this will greatly affect the market trend in the coming year: when to take resources, how many resources, and how to invest, everyone needs a clear prediction.
Zhou Xiaoguang, who is deeply involved in the European and American markets, called for the visa-free policy to be introduced sooner rather than later, and it is best to introduce relevant policies before July to form stable expectations.
For inbound travel, visa-free travel is indeed a powerful medicine.
Judging from the data and feedback from practitioners, not only can the drug not be stopped, but the dose should be increased as soon as possible.
Therefore, Zhou Xiaoguang also suggested that the visa-free policy be expanded to more high-quality source countries.
Judging from the data 19 years ago, the inbound tourists in the whole of Europe accounted for only 2% of the total number of foreign tourists, while the United States, Japan, South Korea and other large inbound tourist source countries are not yet visa-free.
Fang Fang hopes that on the basis of the existing 15 days, the visa-free period can be extended to 30 days.
After all, for most foreign tourists, it is also the realistic demand of many foreign tourists to come to China once in a lifetime, use limited time, go to a few more destinations, and visit this thousand-year-old country in more depth.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2023, there will be 13.78 million foreign inbound tourists, and the total inbound tourism revenue will be 53 billion US dollars, with the former recovering to 43% of the same period in '19 and the latter to 40% of the same period in '19.
Data**: Mapping by National Bureau of Statistics ChinaTravelNews.
From the point of view of medicinal properties, the visa exemption only breaks the first "heart wall" for foreign tourists to come to China, but after coming, whether they can have fun or not, there is an urgent need for new prescriptions.
Among the many pain points of inbound tourism, it is difficult to purchase tickets for scenic spots, which is undoubtedly one of the most difficult problems for foreign tourists after entering the country.
It must be admitted that the degree of electronic tickets for domestic scenic spots is the world's leading, but for foreign tourists and inbound travel agencies, there are practical problems.
After the epidemic has passed, the reservation system for domestic scenic spot tickets has been popularized throughout the country, regardless of inbound tourists and domestic tourists.
At popular attractions such as the Forbidden City in Beijing, the Shaanxi History Museum, and Sanxingdui in Sichuan, inbound travel agencies were horrified to find that they could not book tickets either.
Now, many of our inbound colleagues have become 'scalpers', staring at their mobile phones every day, and they are going to grab tickets at the point, and we have invited many students to help part-time, but even so, there are still guests who can't grab tickets. Zhou Xiaoguang sighed.
A foreign tourist who gave a 2-star rating on TripAdvisor put it this way: you have to make a reservation 7 days before your trip, and we didn't know about it beforehand, so we had to walk around the outside of the Forbidden City.
When foreign tourists come to China and can't enter the Forbidden City, some of their peers can't only take Guozijian instead. Zhou Xiaoguang said with a wry smile that in order not to disappoint tourists, many colleagues can only prepare alternatives.
Guests come to visit, but in the end disappointed, not only will affect the reputation of the scenic spot, tourists will also put the responsibility on the head of the travel agency, resulting in domestic travel agencies in the reception of foreign tourists become timid.
In addition, many foreign tourists are puzzled to understand that they are repeatedly asked to show their passports during the tour of the scenic spots.
Fang Fang clearly remembered that February 25 was Sunday, because on that day, an aviation regiment left a deep impression on him.
The whole group of more than 400 people, from various airlines around the world, belongs to the category of guests who value personal privacy more.
In order to enter the ticket information for the Pearl River night cruise in advance, the tour guide asked the guest for the passport number as usual, but he was refused.
So, they came up with a way, and after the guests all came to the attraction by car, the tour guide tried to collect the guests' passports and buy tickets in a unified manner, but they were closed again.
Guests are afraid that their passports will disappear in front of their eyes and that they will not feel safe if they are taken away. Fang Fang reluctantly said that although it was difficult to understand, he could only respect the wishes of the guests.
The final way to deal with it can only be that more than 400 people take their passports and go to the ticket hall to queue up to buy tickets.
Fortunately, we are chartered boats, and it's hard to imagine what it would be like if we were at peak times. Thinking of this, Fang Fang still had palpitations.
In addition to the problems of ticket purchase and admission to the park, there are many blockages in inbound tourism.
The biggest feeling of many foreigners after visiting China is that the scenery is beautiful and the city is very new, but without the guidance of locals, it will be difficult for foreigners to travel in China.
Some foreign netizens concluded that from the moment they just got off the plane, the trip to China started the difficult mode: the free wifi at the airport can only receive verification codes with domestic mobile phone numbers; Most people don't know that they can register for foreigners' accommodation; lack of English signage in public places; Maps and ride-hailing apps are not available in English.
Although inbound tourism is facing one or another problem, for Zhang Fan, chairman of Shaanxi Lixing International Travel Service, it is the most important thing to participate in the world's largest tourism trade exhibition, ITB Berlin (English translation: International Tourism Exchange).
On the eve of his departure for Berlin, Zhang Fan took advantage of a layover in Beijing to give an interview to ChinaTravelNews.
As a veteran of inbound tourism, Zhang Fan has been participating in the Berlin exhibition since 1994, and has been going there every year except for three years of the epidemic, and it has been a full 30 years now.
Last year, almost no one from China participated, but we still participated," Zhang Fan said, revealing pride.
ITB Berlin is known as the "Olympics" of the travel industry, and this year's show dates are March 5-7.
In addition to Zhang Fan, a research group of nearly 20 people led by Zhou Xiaoguang, General Manager of Guilin Tang Dynasty International Travel Service, and Li Chao, CEO of ChinaTravelNews, also participated in the exhibition.
The reason why it can attract front-line practitioners such as Zhang Fan and Zhou Xiaoguang to participate in inbound tourism is because ITB can bring practical transformation.
In other words, they went to the Berlin exhibition with the task of getting inbound orders.
We can go to the exhibition every year, which means that the exhibition must be effective, so we are willing to pay for it ourselves. Zhang Fan bluntly said that on the one hand, going to the exhibition is to communicate with old customers about cooperation in the coming year, and on the other hand, it can also develop some new customers.
Before going to the exhibition, Zhang Fan's team prepared new tourism products and new brochures, and invited dozens of customers to meet in Berlin, Germany, looking forward to winning the battle in Berlin.
It is understood that this Berlin exhibition is also the first return of the Chinese pavilion after the epidemic.
Tourist destinations from 13 provinces and cities across the country, including Beijing, Shanghai, Sichuan, Guangdong, Hunan, Shaanxi, and Yunnan, will be on display.
Screenshot of ITB official**.
Looking at the floor plan, the Asia Pavilion is located in Hall 26, and the China Pavilion is in Hall 26, Booth 315.
According to Zhang Fan, the area of the entire Chinese booth is about 400 square meters, which is not large. In some other countries, a pavilion is thousands of square meters, and even tens of thousands of square meters are larger.
Judging from the area of the exhibition hall, it may not match the image of our tourism country.
Therefore, in the revitalization of inbound tourism, we must make great efforts to encourage domestic travel agencies to go out more, publicize more, and form a joint force in order to recover faster. Zhang Fan said.
Liang Jianzhang, co-founder and chairman of the board of directors of Trip.com Group, once said that some major economies have inbound tourism revenue of 1% to 3% of GDP, and if China's inbound tourism revenue can account for 1% of GDP5%, will bring more than one trillion yuan of market incremental space.
This is not a very distant goal. China has world-class tourist destinations, and even on TripAdvisor, foreign tourists have a very high overall rating of China's scenic spots.
And a visible change is that since last year, the potential energy of inbound tourism has gradually increased.
Since the eve of the National Day last year, the national level has launched a series of favorable policies for inbound tourism, and a number of competent departments have concentrated their efforts, giving the tourism industry great confidence.
From "Hello! The global promotion of China's image, the implementation of the visa-free policy for six countries, and the recent high-level meeting on optimizing payment services for inbound tourism are all verifying this.
In addition, compared with previous years, in the area of opening up to the outside world, we have been working hard to do subtraction, simplify the visa process, cancel fingerprints, cancel appointments, and even if some countries ask for a visa, they have to fill out a lot fewer forms.
From the recovery to the peak of inbound tourism, it may only take time to verify.
Standing at the end of real estate investment and the shift period of consumption-driven economy, the consumption gap left by inbound tourism in the past few years is not a new round of dividends.
Finally, the author makes a bold **, in the next year, the **small language tour guide** will be substantially **.