During the May Day holiday, tourists visit the Temple of Heaven Park in Beijing. Shen Jizhong
Foreign tourists pick cherries in the cherry garden of Gongfu Workshop in Taishan Village, Tangqi Town, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. Shen Jizhong
Inbound tourists visit the Yuyuan Business District in Shanghai. Shen Jizhong
In the past May Day holiday, inbound tourism has become a hot topic. Foreign tourists are active in both well-known scenic spots and streets. They come from all over the world, or visit famous mountains and rivers, or experience traditional culture, or taste Chinese food, to fully experience the customs and unique charm of the land of China.
With the recent recovery of the international tourism market, the resumption of more international routes, the implementation of visa free policies and various facilitation measures between China and many countries, the popularity of overseas tourists in China continues to rise. According to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the number of inbound and outbound tourists during the May Day holiday totaled 3.672 million, including 1.775 million inbound tourists. According to the data of the National Migration Administration, the number of foreigners coming to China in the first quarter increased by more than three times compared with the same period in 2023, with tourism accounting for more than 30%. Is the tourism industry ready for the rapidly growing demand for inbound tourism? How to further optimize tourism services, enrich product supply, and provide more convenient and comfortable tourism environment for foreign tourists?
The market prospect of inbound tourism is promising
"We came to China to experience the profound history and culture of China, and Xi'an left a deep impression on us." "We also went to Shanghai and Suzhou, where we were surprised by the ancient and modern China." At the Chang'an 12:00 theme street in Xi'an, several German tourists dressed in Han suits excitedly shared their feelings about this trip to China. They said that since China tried out a 15 day visa free policy for Germany last December, they have begun to plan this trip, which is convenient and comfortable.
"Recently, the number of inbound tourists has increased, and we are getting busier and busier. This year, our travel agency receives almost 60 or 70 inbound tour teams every month." Sun Ting, a bilingual tour guide from a travel agency in Chengdu, Sichuan, told reporters that the supply of bilingual tour guides and small language tour guides is in short supply recently, and he has hardly had a rest since April.
The popularity of inbound tourism is inseparable from China's recent policy of visa free for many countries. Last December, China piloted visa free policies for six countries, namely France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Malaysia. In March this year, China further piloted visa free policies for Switzerland, Ireland, Hungary, Austria, Belgium and Luxembourg. The visa free "circle of friends" continues to expand, and a series of measures to improve the convenience level of inbound tourism have been implemented, releasing a positive signal that China will further open the tourism market, and the inbound tourism market is getting warmer.
"This year, we received inbound tourists from Russia, Italy, Australia, Thailand, Ecuador and other countries." The head of Tuniu Beijing Travel Agency told reporters that the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, Prince Gong's Palace, the Lama Temple, and Mutianyu Great Wall are popular places for foreign tourists to punch in. Foreign tourists are very interested in Chinese culture, listening to Beijing Opera Buying featured cultural and creative products such as Facebook is an important part for foreign tourists to experience Beijing culture.
"We received nearly 35000 inbound tourists from January to April, a year-on-year increase of more than 10 times," Xu Xiaolei, chief brand officer of CYTS, told reporters, "Thanks to the visa free policy, many German tourists are among the inbound tourists we receive. Inbound tourist groups mainly take part in one place tours in Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an and other places or experience the characteristic tours of many provinces and cities that need to take China's high-speed railway. International cruise groups are also very popular. At the same time, the source of inbound tourists is more diverse, and the market source represented by countries jointly building the" Belt and Road "is growing rapidly."
Ctrip data shows that, during the May Day holiday, inbound travel orders increased by 105% year on year. The 12 countries that are unilaterally visa free in China, and Singapore and Thailand that are mutually visa free, the cumulative number of inbound tourists increased by about 2.5 times year on year. The relevant person in charge of Ctrip said that during the May Day holiday, more than 600 scenic spots such as the Terracotta Warriors and Horses Tomb of the First Emperor of Qin and Shapotou were welcomed by foreign tourists. Online booking and ticket purchase were hot, and inbound ticket orders increased 12 times over the same period of the previous year. Popular inbound tourist attractions were mainly historical museums, theme parks, landmark buildings, and new projects such as helicopter low altitude flight experience in Sanya, Hainan.
Yang Jinsong, director of the International Research Institute of the China Tourism Research Institute, believes that the visa free policy reduces the economic burden and time cost of foreign inbound tourists and is conducive to improving the willingness of foreign tourists to travel in China. With more favorable policies implemented, the prospect of inbound tourism market is promising.
Improve service access points and create a convenient tourism environment
The rising number of inbound tourists is also a test of the service and reception capacity of the tourism industry. In the face of a large number of foreign tourists, all regions, in accordance with the living habits and travel needs of foreigners, have made efforts to break the barriers in entry, travel, accommodation, sightseeing, shopping, payment and other links, and constantly launched relevant measures to create a more convenient tourism environment.
Recently, more than 300 tourists from Germany came to the Temple of Heaven Park in Beijing to experience the ancient style and charm and enjoy the beautiful scenery. "In order to meet foreign tourists, we have strengthened our service guarantee. The online ticket purchase platform has set up special channels such as passports and permanent residence permits to provide more convenient tourism services for foreign tourists." The relevant person in charge of the Temple of Heaven Park introduced.
At present, some scenic spots and parks have complicated reservation rules and poor consumption environment, which are the problems that foreign tourists often reflect. In addition, the penetration rate of mobile payment business in China is getting higher and higher. In contrast, the development of mobile payment business in some countries has not yet been popularized, and it is not convenient for foreign tourists to use traditional payment methods in China.
In this regard, the General Office of the State Council recently issued the Opinions on Further Optimizing Payment Services and Improving Payment Convenience, proposing multiple tasks - improving the bank card acceptance environment to meet the bank card payment needs of the elderly, foreigners and other groups in the "food, housing, transportation, travel, shopping, entertainment, medicine" and other scenarios; Adhere to the position of "cash for all", and constantly improve the service level of cash receipt and payment and foreign currency exchange; Improve the convenience of mobile payment; To better protect consumers' payment options, large-scale business districts, tourist attractions, entertainment venues, hotels, hospitals and other key places must support diversified payment methods such as mobile payment, bank cards, cash and so on.
The reporter learned that in the first quarter of this year, Shanghai has deployed more than 45000 wild card POS machines. The core business districts, airport terminals, subway stations, hotels above three-star level, scenic spots above 3A level, etc. have achieved full coverage of wild card POS machines, while optimizing services such as self-service cash withdrawal, internal binding of wild cards, and retail wallet placement; The ticket purchase system of Shanghai A-level scenic spots and first-class museums are equipped with the options of foreigners' passports and permanent residence permits. Shenzhen has promoted several five-star hotels to add foreign currency exchange service points and foreign currency ATMs. Merchants in the Ancient Art Museum and History and Folk Custom Museum of Shenzhen Museum have completed the full coverage of domestic and overseas bank card acceptance.
"These measures have broken through the major obstacles and pain points that have long affected the development of China's inbound tourism." Li Xinjian, executive director of the Capital Culture and Tourism Development Research Institute of Beijing International Studies University, pointed out that the next step should be to further explore multi-level visa free policies, And we will focus on optimizing the language environment of inbound tourists in China, especially the language of the signage system.
Ning Zhizhong, chief planner of the Tourism Research Center of the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, pointed out that it is necessary to further improve the level of service facilitation in the whole process of tourism after tourists enter the country, including transportation, sightseeing, accommodation services, online booking, on-site ticket purchase and other aspects. In addition, it is also necessary to facilitate the dissemination of tourism related information, especially the effectiveness of language types and delivery methods of information in weather, transportation, tourist attractions, accommodation and other links, and to strengthen security services during travel.
The "updating" of product supply enables tourists to see the great beauty of China
The tourism industry is taking positive action to welcome visitors from all over the world. Driven by market demand, tourism industry practitioners have studied and launched inbound tourism products and services more suitable for foreign tourists to meet market demand.
Although the current recovery trend of inbound tourism is encouraging, some insiders still believe that the current supply chain of inbound tourism has not fully recovered due to the large impact of the epidemic in the past few years, such as insufficient supply of related business products, language talent loss, etc., which has a certain impact on the reception capacity of inbound tourism.
These problems mean both opportunities and challenges. In addition to improving the level of service guarantee in terms of payment and appointment, how to enrich the supply of tourism products is also an important issue facing the current tourism market. China's rich and diverse cultural heritage and colorful natural scenery have a strong attraction for overseas tourists. Tourism formats such as ice and snow tourism, flower watching tourism, night cultural tourism, and city walking are constantly emerging, and cultural tourism around the country is hot "out of the circle", providing ideas for the development of inbound tourism products.
"The rapid development of inbound tourism puts forward requirements for the construction and service of tourism destinations. All regions should accelerate the construction of international tourism destinations and improve the construction of international tourism service system. The recovery of inbound tourism also challenges the development ability of tourism service products of industry subjects. All kinds of industry subjects should deeply research and develop tourism routes and product services that fully reflect regional natural customs and historical and cultural characteristics, highlight Chinese characteristics and tell Chinese stories. " Ning Zhizhong pointed out that.
Recently, Hainan has released six major themes and 12 routes of inbound tourism products, including folk customs, cycling and health care, which further enhance the overseas influence and attraction of Hainan's tourism brands. Weihai, Shandong Province, aims to meet the needs of tourists from important source countries such as South Korea and Russia, and has launched inbound tourism boutiques such as beach leisure, island experience, hot spring fitness, and youth study tours to provide tourists with multiple choices. Henan has promoted the construction of an international brand of "Walking in Henan, Understanding China", carried out systematic international promotion activities, created a brand of culture going to sea, and established an inbound tourism cooperation system.
Practitioners in the tourism industry also continue to "upgrade" inbound tourism products and actively meet changes and opportunities. "We are strengthening product research and development, trying to launch more tourism routes that both contain Chinese culture and meet the needs of foreign tourists, and integrating China's great rivers and mountains, traditional culture, new era construction achievements into tourism products, so that the world can better understand China," said Xu Xiaolei.
Li Xinjian believes that in the past, inbound tourism was insufficient in terms of resources productization, new business types, diversification of play methods, etc. In this regard, we should attach importance to the development of cultural and tourism integration products with Chinese characteristics and unique local characteristics, especially the development of series products around China's world cultural heritage. We should attach importance to the development of cruise tourism, outdoor hiking and other products with high market recognition abroad, and increase the supply of related supporting facilities. It is necessary to further optimize the tourism investment development environment, improve the tourism product development ability, meet the growing tourism demand with high-quality and diversified product supply, and improve the quality of inbound tourism.
(Our reporter Lu Yuanzhen and Yin Zehao)
