China's tourism industry is entering a period of rapid growth right from the beginning of the year and especially recorded a significant increase in the number of international visitors during the New Year holiday.
The excitement of the long holiday continues to be reflected in the unprecedented scale of travel. According to the Chinese Ministry of Transport, during the three New Year holidays from January 1st to January 3rd, this country recorded an average of 198 million passengers traveling inter-regionally per day, an increase of 19.62% compared to the same period last year. The total number of passengers in the whole holiday reached 595 million, showing that travel demand is high.
The tourism industry benefits the most from this large-scale wave of movement. The Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism said that the tourism market during the first holiday of the year maintained a stable and orderly state, with 142 million domestic trips nationwide. Total spending on domestic tourism reached 84.789 billion yuan (equivalent to 12.13 billion USD).
According to Umetrip, a popular mobile travel service platform in China, air ticket bookings from European countries increased sharply. Specifically, ticket bookings from Spain increased 8 times compared to the previous year, while from Italy increased 4 times.
Data from the Qunar tourism platform shows that during the New Year holiday, tourists using foreign passports booked domestic flights to 97 cities across China. This reflects the widespread interest of international tourists in New Year's activities in China, and also shows the increasing international attraction of this country at the end of the year.
Instead of just visiting for a short time at iconic destinations, foreign tourists are increasingly tending to choose longer, more experiential and deeply exploratory journeys.
International border gates handled 6.615 million arrivals and departures of Chinese citizens and foreigners during the holidays, an average of 2.205 million arrivals per day. This figure increased by 28.6% compared to the same period last year, with a peak of 2.265 million arrivals per day on January 1, according to data released by the China National Immigration Administration.
In this total, there were 292,000 visa-free entrys, an increase of 35.8% compared to the same period last year.
This result is partly thanks to the expansion of the 240-hour visa-free transit program at many border gates in China. At the same time, this country also extended the unilateral visa exemption policy for more than 40 countries until December 31, 2026. These adjustments have played a key role in promoting the number of international visitors, helping tourists easily enter, stay for long days and be more flexible in their travel journeys.
Analysts believe that the above figures show the widespread recovery of domestic tourism right from the beginning of 2026, driven by consumption, along with the diversification of tourism products and increased travel demand. This growth momentum is said to be thanks to prolonged holidays, improved transport infrastructure, visa-free transit policies and diverse tourism products, suitable for many different groups of tourists.
With increasingly complete infrastructure, open visa policies and convenient online services, the positive growth momentum of Chinese tourism is expected to continue to be maintained. In-depth tourism demand along with increasingly improved service quality is helping China become one of the most attractive destinations in the world in 2026.
