Skift Take
China’s visa-waiver list has a clear message: it’s rolling out the welcome mat for high-spending, long-staying European travelers. It’s a smart move to capture more of Europe’s thriving outbound tourism market to give China’s tourism sector a fresh boost.
As China moves ahead with its visa waiver program, it has now extended the facility to citizens of seven more countries — six of which are in Europe.
From Friday, citizens of Finland, Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Iceland, Slovakia and South Korea will not require a visa to enter China for a stay of up to 15 days.
Those intending to stay in the country beyond 15 days would need to apply for a visa.
From November 8, 2024 to December 31, 2025, ordinary passport holders from these countries will be exempt to apply for a visa to “enter China and stay for no more than 15 days for business, tourism, family visit and transit purposes,” spokesperson of the Chinese foreign ministry, Lin Jian, said at a press conference.
China’s Growing Visa-Free List
With this, 27 countries are now part of the China visa-waiver program. These include 24 European nations, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea.
China also has bilateral visa-waiver agreements with Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.
Last month, China announced visa-free entry for citizens of five European countries — Cyprus, Denmark, Greece, Portugal, and Slovenia starting October 15.
Earlier additions include Norway in September and Poland in July. Citizens of these nations can enter China without a visa, a perk extended until December 31, 2025. This follows an initial trial period that began last November.
In the third quarter of this year, foreign entries into China reached 8.2 million through various ports, a 49% increase year-on-year, according to the National Immigration Administration. Of these, 4.9 million were visa-free entries, showing a surge of nearly 79%.
Between January and July this year, China brought in over 17.25 million foreign tourists — a 130% increase compared to 2023. However, China’s inbound arrivals are still far away from its 2019 numbers, when it had over 49 million overseas visitors. International tourism revenue reached $131.3 billion that year.
An ‘Unexpected’ Entrant
South Korean media has dubbed China’s decision to include South Korea in the visa exemption list, “unexpected,” especially as the country has maintained a “soft ban” on Korean pop culture and media imports, such as Korean films and dramas, since 2016.
China previously extended the 144-hour visa-free transit to South Korean citizens.
In the third quarter of 2024, flights between China and South Korea returned to around 90% of pre-pandemic volume, according to data platform Flight Master.
Chinese visas have long been known for their strict requirements, as they demand detailed personal information. The process often required extensive details, such as job information, educational background, and even the occupation and ages of parents and spouses.
Due to these stringent conditions, visa agencies reportedly charged over 100,000 won ($72.45) as service fee, while the visa fee was 60,000 won ($43).
This new visa exemption could ease some hurdles for South Korean travelers, potentially encouraging more tourism and business exchanges between the two countries.
According to the Korea Tourism Organization’s analysis of data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics, approximately 4.35 million Koreans visited China in 2019 before the Covid-19 outbreak. Last year, that number dropped to 1.29 million.
Data released by China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism shows that in the first quarter of this year, Korean tourists ranked among the top three inbound tourism markets.
Japan Wants In
Meanwhile, on Monday, a delegation of Japan Association of Corporate Executives on a visit to China called for the exemption of visa requirements for short-term Japanese visitors
From 2003, China granted visa-free entry to Japanese nationals for a period of up to 15 days. Chinese authorities discontinued this facility in 2020 at the onset of the pandemic. However, Chinese nationals are still required to apply for a visa while entering Japan.
In January this year, China sought visa exemptions for its nationals with diplomatic and official passports, a facility that Japan extends to scores of countries on a reciprocal basis.
Historically Japan had been China’s largest source of inbound tourists.
During a meeting in Japan last month, the tourism ministers of Japan, China and South Korea aimed to increase the number of travelers between the three countries to 30 million by 2025 and 40 million by 2030.
