Recently, the 2023 China International Tourism Fair (hereinafter referred to as the "Travel Fair"), co sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Civil Aviation Administration of China and the Yunnan Provincial Government, was held in Kunming. With the theme of "Hello, China", the Fair attracted representatives from the tourism ministries of South Africa, Thailand and other countries, as well as the United Nations World Tourism Organization, the World Tourism Union and other organizations.
It is reported that during the Travel Expo, activities such as the Global Tourists Conference, the China Inbound Tourism Policy Interpretation Conference, and the China Laos Railway International Cultural Tourism Economic Belt Construction Seminar set up an exchange platform for the global tourism industry. Participants discussed topics such as the recovery of China's inbound tourism, deepening China's diplomatic flow, and injected new momentum into the revitalization and development of China's inbound tourism market.
It is more convenient to travel in China
At Kunming Changshui International Airport, as soon as the German travel business team who came to participate in the Travel Fair landed, they saw a group of young people singing and dancing - students from Kunming City University, stepping on the sound of four stringed zither, dancing the Yi left foot dance, and presenting flowers to guests from afar. It is understood that Kunming is the first stop for these travel agents to re-enter China after three years. They will make a tour tour to learn more about local tourism resources.
Dai Bin, president of the China Tourism Research Institute, believes that one of the key measures to achieve "attracting tourists to China" is to make visa processing as convenient as possible. Since the end of March this year, the national travel agencies and online tourism enterprises resumed their business of inbound team tourism and "air tickets+hotels", China has launched a series of policies and measures to facilitate the entry of foreigners, helping the inbound tourism market to climb.
According to the relevant person in charge of the Aliens Management Department of the National Immigration Administration, the port visa business has been carried out at 99 open ports in 72 cities with a large number of entries in China, and 24 hour transit visa free policies have been implemented for citizens of all countries at all open ports, and regional entry visa free policies have been implemented in Hainan, Shanghai and other places, including 15 day visa free entry for cruise ships in Shanghai People from 59 countries in Hainan will be visa free for 30 days, and tourist groups from 10 countries in ASEAN will be visa free for 144 hours in Guilin, Guangxi, to facilitate exchanges between Chinese and foreign people and promote foreign exchanges and cooperation.
The relevant person in charge of the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that, in order to provide more channels and facilities for foreigners to travel in China, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is actively adjusting the visa and entry policies for foreigners in China, significantly optimizing the visa application forms for foreigners in China, reducing the contents of 7 major items and 15 sub items, and optimizing and simplifying them by 34%. At present, 100 embassies and consulates abroad have realized visa "processing on arrival", and it is expected that all embassies and consulates around the world will cancel visa application reservations by the end of this year.
"Take the bullet train to visit China"
"It takes more than five hours to travel from Vientiane, Laos, to Jinghong, China. It's really convenient to travel to China through the China Laos Railway!" Zara, a Thai tourist, visited China more than 10 years ago. This time, he chose to travel to China by the cross-border passenger train of the China Laos Railway to experience the speed of China and feel the changes in China.
Tidana Nai, who was on the same train with Zala, came to China for the first time. "Our trip lasted for 5 days and 4 nights. We visited some scenic spots in Xishuangbanna and Kunming, and watched the Mengbalana West Song and Dance Show. My favorite is the peacock in Xishuangbanna Forest Park!" Tina Nai was impressed by China's efficient and convenient transportation facilities, rich and diverse food and friendly people, and hoped to visit more places in China later.
It is understood that the China Laos Railway has gathered plateau, canyon, plain and other landscapes along the line. Since its opening in April this year, the international passenger train has become very popular, carrying 348000 passengers. Nearly 100000 passengers have chosen to travel across the border by bullet train, bringing hot inbound tourism to Xishuangbanna, Kunming and other places. Wang Jie, director of the Border Tourism Research Base of the China Tourism Research Institute, found in his research that tourists from Southeast Asian countries have a strong demand for tourism in China. This year, a travel agency in Kunming received about 150 inbound tourist groups during the Mid Autumn National Day holiday. "For Laotian tourists, it used to be expensive to come to China by plane, but now you can reach Kunming by bullet train and enjoy the scenery along the way." Wang Jie believes that the China Laos Railway is not only a landscape belt to display Chinese and Laotian culture, but also an economic belt to promote the development of Chinese and Laotian cultural and tourism industries.
In order to enhance the cross-border tourism experience of the China Laos Railway, this tourism fair released seven theme tourism products, including "slow travel to the Spring City", "leisure Yuxi", "tea seeking Pu'er", and "elephant to Banna", and put forward the "China Laos Railway International Cultural Tourism Economic Belt Co construction Initiative", including continuing to optimize the supply of tourism policies for the China Laos Railway Continue to strengthen the overall planning of China Laos railway tourism and continue to increase the supply of tourism facilities and products for China Laos railway.
Lou Kewei, Deputy Director General of the Department of Culture and Tourism of Yunnan Province, said that in the future, it will further improve the customs clearance facilitation of Yunnan ports, prepare the overall plan of the China Laos Railway Cultural Tourism Economic Belt, promote the orderly development of tourism resources, and provide more comfortable tourism environment and more attractive tourism products for tourists to China.
Rich products and many choices
In the 90000 square meter exhibition area of the Travel Expo, brand tourism resources and tourism innovation and development achievements from different countries and regions around the world are intensively displayed, including some eye-catching images of Chinese tourism destinations. The cultural and tourism departments in many places across the country actively use the tourism fair platform to promote inbound tourism, attracting many overseas tourists to stop and learn about it.
The theme of the Beijing exhibition area is "Follow the performing arts to travel to the charming Beijing to welcome you", and theme plates such as "New vitality of the performing arts space" and "Peking Opera cultural tour" are set up to show the rich performing arts, intangible cultural heritage and other cultural tourism projects and products in Beijing; The Shanghai booth highlighted the cultural and tourism characteristics of "urban, comprehensive and international", and launched 10 Shanghai style city theme tours such as "roaming the Suhe River, the way of butterfly change", "urban memory, the art Bund", "the depth of plane trees, the source of Shanghai style"; The Zhejiang booth focuses on the promotion of the provincial tourism brand of "poetry and painting in the south of the Yangtze River, vitality in Zhejiang", and presents the historical, cultural, landscape and other tourism resources of Zhejiang.
Cultural and museum units and cultural and tourism enterprises also organized groups to participate in the exhibition. Among them, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the Palace Museum, the National Museum of China, the Chinese Cultural Heritage Research Institute and other units appeared in the cultural and museum exhibition area to show the rich achievements in the field of cultural and museum resources and cultural creativity in China in recent years. Aviation enterprises such as Air China focus on promoting regional airline products and services such as "international flights+air rail intermodal transport" to facilitate foreign tourists' travel in China.
In addition, Ctrip Group, together with China Tourism Group, Ant International and other enterprises, launched the initiative of establishing an inbound tourism cooperation alliance, and proposed to carry out in-depth promotion of Chinese tourism destinations, strengthen multilingual outreach, further integrate inbound tourism products and resources, and continue to strengthen cross-border payment technology research and development, so as to pool industry strength and "invite in" more foreign tourists "Good reception".
