China to boost tourism industry with improved products, services

BEIJING -- China will develop a broader range of high-grade tourism products and improve the quality of tourism services to boost the country's tourism sector, according to recommendations for formulating a plan that will guide the country's development over the next five years.

Goals and measures to boost the tourism sector were specified in the Recommendations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) for National Economic and Social Development, which was adopted at a key Party plenum last week and made public on Tuesday.

"Over the past five years, tourism has assumed an increasingly prominent strategic role in the country's development," said Dai Bin, head of the China Tourism Academy.

He noted that based on the tourism achievements in the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) period, the recommendations chart the direction and path for the high-quality development of tourism in the next five years.

The recommendations document also urges efforts to provide more convenient and foreigner-friendly services for inbound tourists.

In recent years, China has continually expanded its visa-free travel policies for foreign visitors. Tourists from 76 countries are now able to benefit from unilateral or mutual visa-free entry, while citizens of 55 further countries can visit China visa-free in transit for up to 10 days, before traveling on to a third destination.

Official data showed that, from July to September, foreign nationals made 7.246 million visits to China under its visa-free policies, marking a 48.3 percent year-on-year increase.

Additionally, the recommendations document calls for spurring deeper integration of culture and tourism through the vigorous development of cultural tourism.