Tourists visit Mount Fanjing, a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site, in Guizhou Province. China has now unilaterally extended visa-free access to citizens of 38 countries.
Photographer: Hu Panxue/VCG/Getty Images
The billions of dollars in spending that an unprecedented lifting of visa requirements could have brought simply hasn’t materialized.
China has taken an unprecedented step to melt the visa needs for dozens of countries in 2024, now it opens its doors to 1. 9 billion potential visitors. Only a fraction of the hope of tourists arrived.
According to a Bloomberg analysis, the entry of foreign tourists and the billions of dollars in the expense they may have brought materialized, according to a Bloomberg analysis. Visitors from the United States and the maximum of Western Europe, where political and advertising points with Beijing abound, have remained away. Instead, tourists from neighboring Asian countries and less evolved markets came to call here.