Increase Tourism China Grants Visa-free To 4 Additional European Nations

There are now four additional European nations that are eligible for visa-free admission into China. Over the course of December and January, China began allowing nationals of seven European nations and Malaysia to enter the country without the need for a visa.

At this time, the list has been expanded to include four more European countries as the nation works to increase the number of individuals who travel for the sake of business and tourism.

Additionally, nationals of France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland will now be able to visit China without the need for a visa. This includes residents of Austria, Belgium, Hungary, and Luxembourg.

During a briefing on the first announcement that was made in November, the spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mao Ning, said that the objective is “to facilitate the high-quality development of Chinese and foreign personnel exchanges and high-level opening up to the outside world.”

To participate in the trial program, which will be in place for a period of one year, visa-free entrance will be authorized for a maximum of fifteen days.
Travel from other countries to China has not yet found its footing again.
Over the course of almost three years, China’s stringent pandemic precautions, which included mandatory quarantines for all new arrivals, deterred a significant number of individuals from traveling to the country. Although the limitations were eased at the beginning of the previous year, international travel has not yet returned to the levels it was at before the epidemic.

In the past, China did not need inhabitants of Brunei, Japan, or Singapore to get a visa in order to visit the country; however, this policy was halted after the COVID-19 epidemic. Brunei and Singapore went back to being able to enter without a visa in July, but Japan has not been allowed to do so since then.

According to data on immigration, China reported 35.5 million foreigners entering and leaving the country in the year 2023 on its territory. In comparison, the total number of people who died in 2019 was 97.7 million, which was the year before the pandemic.

There have been some executives traveling to attend trade fairs and meetings, like Elon Musk of Tesla and Tim Cook of Apple. The government has been looking for foreign investment to help revive a slow economy, and some of these businesspeople have been visiting. When compared to the time before the epidemic, overseas travelers are still a very uncommon sight.

What other ways does China work to make travel easier for Europeans?

During the course of the previous year, there was a rising interest among Europeans in China as a tourist destination.

Trip.com, an online travel operator, said that the number of total reservations from Europe to China increased by 663 percent in comparison to 2022, and that the number of bookings increased by roughly 29 percent in comparison to 2019.

According to the statistics, the United Kingdom and Germany were two of the top ten countries from which tourists traveling to China arrived from across the world.

With its seductive combination of modernity and history, Shanghai continues to be the most popular destination for Europeans. Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen are the next most popular destinations after Shanghai.

The city of Sanya, which is located on the southern tip of Hainan Island in China, and Chengdu, which is the capital of Sichuan province in southwestern China, are both in the process of becoming popular tourist attractions.

In addition to the new visa-free programs that it has implemented, the nation is also working with Trip.com to promote cultural and historical sites in order to further encourage tourists from outside the country. The infrastructure of China’s tourist industry is also being improved via investments in technology, trip guides, and electronic payment systems.