Visa-free ‘dividends’: China drawing a boom in foreign visitors this summer
A growing number of foreign travellers are taking advantage of looser rules to venture inland, fuelling a shift away from traditional hotspots
Nikolas Karageorge has mapped out a tour of China that starts in Shanghai and Beijing before heading deep inland – venturing well beyond the typical tourist trail.
“ It’s an ambitious itinerary, I know!” said the 37-year-old resident of Melbourne, Australia, about his path through Chengdu, Chongqing, Zhangjiajie, Guizhou, Guilin and finally Guangzhou. “I’ve heard China is very safe and easy to travel around so this is a great opportunity, as Australians currently have 30 days of visa-free travel.”
Inbound travel bookings rose by more than 600 per cent year on year for the Dragon Boat Festival, held from June 19 to 21, according to online travel platform Fliggy, which released the figures on June 12.
Direct inbound flights to China also increased 8.3 per cent year on year in the 12 months ending on June 10, aviation data platform VariFlight reported. IBA, an aviation intelligence firm, said airline capacity into China from June through August was scheduled to reach 22.4 million seats, up 4.3 per cent year on year.
The trend builds on a robust Labour Day holiday in May, when trips by foreign nationals to and from China rose 12.5 per cent from a year earlier to 1.26 million, according to state-run news agency Xinhua. Of those entering the country, about 436,000 travelled visa-free, up 14.7 per cent over the same period in 2025.