Foreign Tourists Flock to China, Boosting Inbound Consumption Amid Policy Dividends

WUHAN, April 10 – Foreign tourists’ enthusiasm for shopping in China has soared during this year’s Wuhan Cherry Blossom Season, with inbound consumption vitality continuing to release, supported by optimized policies and upgraded services, according to Wuhan Customs.

Since March, Wuhan Tianhe Airport Customs has supervised more than 120,000 international inbound and outbound passengers, including 16,100 inbound foreign tourists, a year-on-year increase of 110.99%. The accelerated construction of Wuhan Tianhe International Airport’s “super transfer hub” and upgraded customs clearance services, coupled with policy dividends such as 240-hour transit visa exemption and visa-free entry for many countries, have driven the booming tax refund business for departure, covering categories such as luggage, cosmetics and electronic products.

Data from Ctrip, a leading online travel platform, shows that inbound tourism vitality was further released during this year’s Qingming Holiday. Ctrip’s overseas inbound orders nearly doubled, with the number of orders for entertainment projects surging by more than 20 times. Among the top 20 foreign source markets for inbound tourism, 15 are visa-free countries, and orders from visa-free country tourists increased significantly year-on-year, reflecting the continuous effect of visa policies.

Inbound tourism is also shifting from “traffic volume” to “quality experience”, a Ctrip relevant person in charge said. Popular destinations have expanded to second and third-tier cities, which have become new growth engines. For example, Guilin, Lijiang and Dali have formed new attractions with their southwest natural scenery and ethnic minority customs, achieving more than 200% growth in inbound orders during the Qingming Holiday. In addition, cultural heritage scenic spots are increasingly favored by foreign tourists, making inbound tourism a bridge for cultural exchanges.

“Through self-developed technology, we have translated the supply of more than 8,000 partner scenic spots into over 16 languages, building a language bridge connecting global tourists. We have added 63,000 ticket types bookable by foreigners, realizing that 95% of ticket types of top domestic scenic spots are available for foreign booking,” the person in charge added.

In recent years, more and more foreign tourists have come to China to wear Hanfu, enjoy folk customs and taste hot pot, with “China Travel” and “China Shopping” remaining popular. The continuous improvement of inbound consumption convenience has brought service upgrades and experience optimization. UnionPay introduced that besides optimizing basic payment services, it officially launched the Nihao China APP in December 2025, integrating payment, travel, life, cultural tourism and translation functions to provide full-cycle digital services for foreigners.

UnionPay has also optimized tax refund services for departure, covering more than 30 policy cities nationwide and over 5,000 affiliated merchants, with special POS machines installed at major ports and tax refund stores to realize “instant refund and fast arrival”. It has also launched preferential policies such as multi-currency automatic settlement and no currency conversion fees to reduce cross-border consumption costs for foreigners.

In March this year, nine ministries and commissions including the Ministry of Commerce issued the Policy Measures on Promoting the Export of Travel Services and Expanding Inbound Consumption, putting forward 16 specific measures in seven aspects. A relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Commerce recently stated that optimized Version 2.0 measures for tax refund on departure will be launched to make shopping more convenient and affordable for foreign tourists.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that 35.17 million foreign tourists entered China in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 30.5% from 2024. According to the Ministry of Commerce, the export scale of China’s travel services, which includes various consumption of inbound tourists in China, reached 393.98 billion yuan in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 49.5% and 1.6 times that of 2019. The booming inbound tourism and consumption not only inject vitality into China’s economy but also strengthen cultural exchanges between China and the world.