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Ke Hanyan

China’s charm offensive and relaxed visa policies intended to attract foreign travellers to return are seemingly paying off with cruise passenger traffic having surged in the second quarter.
Beijing announced in May that foreign visitors in tour groups of at least two people could stay in China for up to 15 days without a visa if they arrive via any of China’s 13 cruise ports.
And according to the Ministry of Transport, cruise traffic rose by nearly 60 per cent in the second quarter from the first three months of the year.
Cruise passenger traffic in the first half stood at nearly 500,000, recovering to more than half of the same period in 2019, the ministry added.
China has resumed operations for its eight cruise ships from seven companies after lifting its coronavirus-related curbs last year, operating routes from Chinese ports to Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Vietnam.




Additionally, more than 10 foreign-flagged cruise ships have visited ports in China.
“The accelerated recovery of the cruise economy has provided strong support for further expanding domestic demand and boosting consumption,” said ministry official Li Xuelian.
The ministry has also pledged to accelerate construction of cruise terminals.
After China’s first home-grown large cruise liner, Adora Magic City, entered commercial service in January, a second domestically-produced large cruise ship is being built at an accelerated pace, with significant improvements in size, cabin layout and systems.
To revive its coronavirus pandemic-hit tourism market and enhance people-to-people exchanges with foreign countries, China has unveiled measures including visa-free transit policies to attract foreign travellers.


As a result, 14.64 million inbound trips were made by foreigners in the first half of the year, up 152.7 per cent year on year, after the measures were introduced in January, the National Immigration Administration said last week.
Among them, 8.5 million people entered visa-free, accounting for 52 per cent of the total, registering a 190.1 per cent increase compared to the same period last year.
On Monday, the immigration administration also added two airports and one railway station in Henan and Yunnan provinces to the original 34 eligible entry points under China’s 144-hour visa-free transit policy.
Starting from Monday, foreigners may also enter China via Zhengzhou, Henan’s provincial capital, but they are only allowed to stay within the province.
They have also been granted visa-free access to eight more cities or prefecture-level areas in Yunnan.
Previously, foreign visitors could enter Yunnan for 144 hours without a visa through Kunming Changshui International Airport, but their travel was limited to the provincial capital of Kunming.


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An ‘accelerated recovery’ of China’s cruise economy has provided support for expanding domestic demand and boosting consumption, Ministry of Transport says


An ‘accelerated recovery’ of China’s cruise economy has provided support for expanding domestic demand and boosting consumption, Ministry of Transport says.


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