CGTN Europe spoke to Jonathan Kao, Managing Director for North Asia at BCD Travel.
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00:00As well as a rise in domestic tourism, this year's Spring Festival has also seen a big increase in travel from overseas.
00:07According to booking website Trip.com, orders from foreign tourists have more than tripled in 2025 compared to last year.
00:16There's also been an overall rise in international tourism to China.
00:20Official data shows foreign nationals made almost 65 million entries and exits in 2024, up more than 80% on the year before.
00:32The number of those entering without a visa more than doubled to over 20 million.
00:38That's, of course, after China expanded visa-free access to travelers from 38 countries for stays of up to 30 days.
00:47Well, for more on this, here's Jonathan Ka, Managing Director of North Asia at BCD Travel.
00:53Today marks the first day of 40-day Spring Festival transportation period.
00:59So, basically, during this time, we get a massive amount of people, traffic, traveling across the country,
01:05mainly people going back to their hometown to reunite with their family and celebrate the Spring Festival.
01:13Also, in recent years, we see more and more people actually taking the opportunity to travel and experience the world and the rest of the country and the world.
01:23So, this is a very important time.
01:26And I think, most importantly this year, what is happening is that the government is giving an extra day of holiday.
01:33So, instead of the normal seven days we get, we get eight days of holidays.
01:37So, it's really going to be a boost.
01:40We're expecting a lot more people traveling and going around the country and the rest of the world.
01:45We've also seen China really push to extend visa-free travel for foreigners.
01:51It does seem to be paying off if we compare what we've seen with an increase in foreign travelers.
01:57Is this the right way forward? Do you think that China should look to do more?
02:01Yes, I definitely see that because I think it is important tourism.
02:07It's a very strong revenue generator for the country.
02:12And also, it's very important for cultural and business exchanges around the world.
02:17So, I think that it is very important and we've seen the results.
02:21So, I think it can be expected that we see further doubling of inbound tourists in the coming year.
02:29There are now over 30 countries that have a visa-free travel policy coming to China
02:34with an additional 54 countries that have the transit visa-free policy including the US, Canada and the UK.
02:42So, I think it's really facilitating and encouraging people to come to China and look at China for themselves.
02:50So, tourism definitely increasing domestic and international.
02:55Do you think 2025 might be the year where China gets up to pre-pandemic level even exceeding them perhaps?
03:05Yes, so I think it depends on the metrics we measure it.
03:08So, I think for domestic travel, we've already exceeded 2019 level.
03:13For international, we're still international travel.
03:16We're still a little bit behind but I think going outbound,
03:20it just may be the year that we are able to return to pre-pandemic levels.
03:25In fact, it depends on the routes.
03:28Some of the Asia-Pacific routes were already back to very close to 2019 level.
03:34And I think most importantly, for us normal people, we need a world peace
03:39where safety is the best thing to encourage people to travel.