The recovery of inbound tourism has led to an improvement in the performance of industries such as hotels and duty-free goods this year. But with the increase of overseas tourists, issues such as foreign language services and payments have also surfaced.
Paul and his friends are from England. Recently, he visited Shanghai in the way of CityWalk, and especially praised the snacks in Yu Garden. Since the beginning of this year, with the help of a series of visa free policies, inbound tourism has seen a significant increase, and there are many inbound tourists like Paul.
According to China News Agency, at a regular press conference recently held by the National Immigration Administration of China, Lin Yongsheng, spokesperson and director of the Policy and Regulations Department, stated that the number of foreigners coming to China in the first quarter of this year increased by more than three times compared to the same period in 2023.
A reporter from First Financial recently conducted on-site visits to several major tourist attractions and conducted research with industry insiders. It was found that the recovery and growth rate of inbound tourism is currently very fast, with the biggest driving force coming from visa free policies. At the same time, the gradual resumption of international flights and cruise ships has also transported inbound tourists. The recovery of inbound tourism has led to an improvement in the performance of industries such as hotels and duty-free goods this year. But with the increase of overseas tourists, issues such as foreign language services and payments have also surfaced.
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The effect of visa free “Moments” is significant
Unlike the domestic tourism market, inbound and outbound tourism have more complex procedures, especially visa procedures, which are the first threshold for outbound and inbound tourism.
According to public information, on July 26, 2023, China resumed a 15 day visa free entry policy for Singaporeans and Brunei citizens holding regular passports to conduct business, travel, visit family and friends, and transit in China. On December 1, 2023 and March 14, 2024, China successively implemented a unilateral visa free policy for individuals holding ordinary passports in six countries: France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Malaysia, and Switzerland, Ireland, Hungary, Austria, Belgium, and Luxembourg.
On March 1, 2024, the China Thailand Mutual Visa Exemption Agreement officially came into effect. Just recently, China decided to extend the visa free policy for citizens of 12 countries including France until the end of 2025.
Lin Yongsheng publicly stated that since 2023, the National Immigration Administration has launched a series of policy measures to promote the exchange of Chinese and foreign personnel, continuously improving the efficiency of port clearance, and enhancing the convenience of foreign personnel working, doing business, studying, traveling, and living in China, which has been widely welcomed and recognized. Foreigners come to China for tourism and sightseeing, accounting for more than 30%, followed by business, visiting relatives and friends, work, study, etc. As of now, a total of 989000 foreign nationals from the above 10 visa free countries have entered China without a visa, accounting for more than 60% of the total number of visitors from relevant countries, showing an overall upward trend. To ensure the precise and efficient implementation of policy measures, the National Immigration Administration has deployed national immigration management agencies to dynamically monitor changes in port clearance flow, fully ensuring the safety and smoothness of ports, and providing efficient and convenient customs clearance services and residence convenience for visa free foreign nationals in China in accordance with the law.
It is reported that on January 11th this year, the National Immigration Administration launched five measures to facilitate foreign nationals to come to China, further relaxing the conditions for foreign nationals to apply for port visas, implementing 24-hour border inspection exemption procedures for transit, providing convenience for foreign nationals to apply for visa extension, replacement, and re entry visas nearby, and simplifying the materials for foreign nationals to apply for visa documents in China.
Lin Yongsheng publicly stated that since the implementation of this policy, a total of 211000 foreign nationals have entered the country by applying for port visas; A total of 253000 foreign nationals in China have applied for visa extensions, replacements, reissues, and residence permits, making it more convenient for foreign nationals to come to and stay in China.
According to Ctrip data, countries such as France, Germany, and Italy, which had previously unilaterally waived visa requirements, saw a total doubling of tourism orders entering China during this year’s Spring Festival compared to the same period in 2019. According to the big data monitoring of passenger flow by the Data Center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the total number of inbound and outbound tourists during this year’s May Day holiday reached 3.672 million, including 1.775 million inbound tourists and 1.897 million outbound tourists.
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Ground connection, accommodation, and duty-free shopping have significantly driven growth
Chen Junjun has been engaged in the tourism industry for about 20 years. As a university student majoring in tourism English, she has been working as a tour guide. Although the pandemic caused a sharp decline in her business volume for three years, due to her love for the tourism industry, Chen Junjun has always adhered to her position as a tour guide.
“I have done outbound travel, inbound travel and even local travel during the epidemic period, but what I am best at is the reception of inbound tourists. When I was busy in the past, I was taking groups almost every day for a month, mainly taking European and American guests to visit landmark tourist attractions such as Yu Garden, the Bund and the Oriental Pearl TV Tower. The epidemic once suspended all cross-border travel, and the recovery of outbound travel began last February. By contrast, the recovery speed of inbound travel was slower than outbound travel last year. Under the promotion of visa free policy, it is obvious that the inbound sector has rapidly increased since this year. I now take groups for more than 10 days a month, compared with last year, the business volume has already increased It has doubled.” Chen Junjun told China Business News that most of the inbound guests would go to some landmark scenic spots when they took a group, Now, we will pay more attention to niche routes and even go to some lower tier markets that even Chinese tourists rarely visit.
International cruise companies such as the Mediterranean and Royal Caribbean have restarted their routes to China, which has also increased the number of inbound tourists and boosted the business volume of tour guides like Chen Junjun.
A reporter from First Financial News learned that each stop of a large international cruise ship can bring in more than 3000 inbound tourists. Since the beginning of this year, the large inbound groups in Shanghai have all come from cruise ship sources. For example, at the end of April, the “Ocean Spectrum” cruise ship, carrying nearly 4000 international tourists from multiple countries and regions such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Australia, arrived at the Wusongkou International Cruise Port in Shanghai. This is the highest number of international tourists entering China on a single ship since its opening.
Royal Caribbean Asia Chairman Liu Zinan stated in an interview with First Financial reporters that the cruise industry has experienced ups and downs in the Chinese market. In terms of sales models, it has undergone a transformation from cabin cutting to simple charter sales. After restarting sales, the booking volume of direct sales channels has doubled compared to 2019.
In addition to tour guides and cruise companies, the accommodation industry is also a direct beneficiary industry after the resumption of inbound tourism this year.
Hotel groups such as Jinjiang and Shoulv Rujia have stated that in the past few years, the hotel’s customer base has mainly been domestic tourists, with few overseas customers. However, since the beginning of this year, the international customer base has significantly increased.
The person in charge of the Bund New Town Hotel, the classic Nanjing Road Walkway in Jinjiang City, told China Business News that before the epidemic, about 60% of the hotel’s guests were international guests, and after the epidemic, most of them were domestic guests. Since this year, more than 30% of the hotel’s guests are international tourists, and within a few months, it has recovered to the level of about 50% of the hotel’s international guests before the epidemic.
Many businesses have started launching targeted inbound tourism products. Ctrip’s recently launched “Shanghai Free Half Day Tour” provides a one-stop inbound tourism service, including free transportation and foreign language guides, foreign currency exchange, and online services. The project was launched on April 15th, with approximately 80% of passengers from Central Europe and 20% from Southeast Asia.
More overseas tourists returning have directly driven duty-free shopping consumption.
According to CCTV news, in the first quarter of 2024, the scale of Shanghai’s exit tax refund continued to grow, achieving a refund sales revenue of over 400 million yuan. More than 10000 “Exit Tax Refund Application Forms” were issued to overseas passengers, and nearly 45 million yuan of tax refunds were processed, a year-on-year increase of more than double. In terms of exit tax refund processing, Shanghai continues to rank first in the country. On the basis of the first nationwide “buy and refund” convenient measure for departure tax refunds in 2019, Shanghai has added three centralized refund points for departure tax refunds. Qualified overseas tourists who consume at all tax refund stores in the mall can apply for tax refunds at the centralized refund point by holding shopping receipts and tax refund application forms. The establishment of centralized refund points for “buy and return” can effectively alleviate the bottleneck of single household stores providing their own tax refund cash, and vigorously promote the development of exit tax refund business in stores.
As of the end of March 2024, nearly 700 tax refund shops have been registered in Shanghai, and these shops have achieved full coverage in major commercial districts such as Nanjing West Road, Huaihai Road, Jing’an Temple, Lujiazui, and Qiantan.
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And these issues need to be noted
More overseas tourists entering the country for tourism has brought popularity, but it is also accompanied by some problems.
The National Tourism Administration of Thailand told First Financial reporters that since the implementation of the visa free policy, due to the convenience of travel, tourists can “leave as they please”. Therefore, many Thai guests have been seen traveling in China, and they have also shared their travel experience in China on Thai social media, especially some Thai social media influencers. The travel experience they share is very popular and further promotes the rise of inbound tourism. But at the same time, there are also some details, such as payment and foreign language services.
“Actually, a fundamental problem lies in payment. Currently, most domestic consumers use mobile payments, but overseas guests entering China generally use international credit cards and cash. Some high star hotels or restaurants certainly accept credit cards and cash, but some small shops cannot use international credit cards or even do not accept cash because it is difficult to find zero. This leads to the problem of difficulty for inbound tourists to consume in some stores. Of course, this problem is gradually being solved.” Zhao Huanyan, a senior economist who has been engaged in and researching the tourism industry for a long time, analyzed to reporters from First Financial News.
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A recent on-site visit by a journalist from First Financial News found that many taxis in Shanghai have signs in both Chinese and English, providing specialized guidance for issues related to international payments. In some shopping malls, such as IAPM, there are also signs at the entrance that accept various international credit cards.
For the issue of foreign language services, many practitioners believe that it is necessary to deeply solve it from the perspective of talent cultivation. For example, in the past three years of the epidemic, many tourism talents have been lost, and some museums and other places lack foreign language talents with professional explanations.
“The museum’s explanations are very professional, and to enter some venues for explanations, specialized assessments and certifications are needed. There will be a gap here, which is that foreign language tour guides may not necessarily have the qualifications for venue explanations, and qualified venue guides may not have strong foreign language skills. In addition, there are also some scenic spot booking channels that lack foreign language assistance, which need to be improved in the future.” Zhou Weihong, Deputy General Manager of Spring and Autumn Tourism, told First Financial reporters that the lead time for some cultural and museum venue visits is too short. For overseas tourists, even if they can really “just leave”, such a short appointment period means it is full of uncertainty. Therefore, it is recommended that major scenic spots, cultural and museum venues, etc., should be improved as soon as possible. Optimize the visit appointment function and activate the appointment function on the official website (foreign language version) as soon as possible, Open the appointment period as early as possible, referring to other international museums, for at least 2 months, and simplify the requirements for providing visitor information. For increasing the amount of small denomination cash at manual currency exchange windows such as banks, star rated hotels, and airports. At the necessary currency exchange window, a certain amount of small RMB cash can be provided proactively to facilitate the consumption and payment of inbound passengers.
Industry opinions also point out that in terms of accommodation, it is necessary to increase the procurement of various high-quality accommodation resources as soon as possible, and pay more attention to the details and service quality of the supplementary procurement of accommodation resources, including understanding the foreign language communication skills of front desk, catering, guest rooms, and other personnel in advance, as well as the experience and emergency plans of receiving foreign tourists. It is recommended that major travel agencies actively intervene, communicate and assist in advance, so that these characteristic accommodation resources can further enhance the experience of inbound tourists on their trip to China.