Eight months after China’s borders’ reopened, the number of foreign tourists visiting China has not rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, though life in the country has largely returned to normal.
The absence of overseas tourists is particularly noticeable in metropolises like Beijing and Shanghai. In the first half of this year, the two cities received less than a quarter of the pre-pandemic level. Why are international travelers skipping China?
Tourist numbers drop#
According to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics, from January to June this year, Beijing welcomed 407,900 inbound international tourists, double the number of visitors for the whole of 2022, but down 11 percent compared to 2019.
Tourists from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan accounted for 21.4 percent of inbound visitors in 1H 2023. In the same period, the number of inbound tourists in Shanghai was 1.2 million, down 13.8 percent from 2019.
Matthias Terrettaz, general manager of the Bulgari Hotel in Shanghai, tells Jing Daily that foreign travelers account for less than 10 percent of the hotel’s total guests.
“[They] mostly visit China for business trips, such as CEOs from international companies, or visiting luxury brand management teams,” he says.
A report from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism showed that in 1Q 20223, national travel agencies facilitated 52,000 inbound tourists, compared with 3.7 million in the same period in 2019.
Payment, hotels and shopping challenges#
One stumbling block comes in the form of barriers for foreigners who wish to visit or live in the country.
“Without a Chinese SIM card and the WeChat or Alipay apps, China can be a nightmare for tourists,” Nick Chen, a 28-year-old white-collar living in Hangzhou, tells Jing Daily
Laura Pan, professor at Italy’s Bocconi SDA University, flew back to China in late October. Although she is Chinese and in close contact with her friends and relatives in China, she encountered several payment challenges on her trip.
“Earlier this year, WeChat Pay and Alipay made it a lot easier for foreigners by accepting foreign credit cards to be linked to the payment system. However, upon arriving in China, WeChat Pay did not work. It continued to ask for ID verification, which proved to be difficult because it wasn’t able to send an OTP to foreign mobile phone numbers. Alipay was significantly better – the user experience was simpler and relied on the user’s bank to send the OTP,” says Pan.
Chinese hotels need to meet certain qualifications to receive foreign guests. To ensure the safety of overseas tourists and national security, China has formulated regulations on the accommodation requirements for foreign tourists visiting China. According to Ctrip platform data, 72 percent of domestic hotels cannot accommodate foreigners.
Notably, shopping and getting around in China can be challenging for foreign visitors. Most shopping malls, restaurants, hotels, accommodations, transportation, and other merchants use mobile payments to collect payments and lack cash reserves. Some stores simply don’t accept cash.
When it comes to sightseeing, many popular attractions, from museums to parks, require reservations in advance on the WeChat mini program. However, many overseas tourists do not use WeChat, and even after downloading WeChat, language barriers, identity verification, and one-time password requirements make the process less straightforward and in some cases even prohibitive for foreigners.
“If you are using the mini program directly from WeChat, everything (prompts and instructions) is listed in Mandarin. This can be overwhelming for a foreigner who isn’t familiar with the language,” says Pan.
Ongoing improvements#
“For any country, inbound tourism is the foundation of tourism development,” says Song Rui, director of the Tourism Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, in an interview with domestic media outlet Huxiu.
China is working hard to revive inbound tourism. In August this year, Beijing and Washington agreed to double the number of direct passenger flights between the two countries to 24 per week starting late October.
Meanwhile, visa applications for some countries have also been simplified. Wu Wendi, founder of travel agency Wendy Wu Tours, says: "In Australia, New Zealand, and many countries in Europe, fingerprints are no longer required since August 11. So this is good news."
In late November, China’s foreign ministry announced that the nation would expand its visa-free entry policy to travelers from France, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, Spain, and the Netherlands. These countries will be able to visit China for two weeks without a visa.
On July 20 this year, WeChat Pay announced it has enabled most merchants in China to support overseas payment cards. Alipay also stated on July 21 that after linking overseas cards to Alipay, they can be used nationwide. Both platforms support overseas bank card organizations, such as Visa, Mastercard, Discover Global Network, and JCB.
As the country rapidly moves toward a cashless society, the Chinese government is working to make it easier for foreigners to use mobile payment systems. Removing hindrances for tourists will likely go a long way to attracting more visitors.