Published on : Monday, February 18, 2019
Travelers stayed one night in China at the minimum on 23.64 million of the trips, a rise of 5.2 percent than the figure of 2017, stated a post on the ministry’s website Tuesday.
In 2018, foreign travelers spent 73.1 billion U.S. dollars on their trips in China, 5.1 percent more than the amount in 2017, as stated.
The Republic of Korea, Japan, the United States, Malaysia and Singapore were among the 10 largest source markets of China of tourism in 2018, according to the ministry.
China provides a 24-hour visa-free transit to the eligible international travelers, while people of 53 nationalities can have a 144-hour visa-free transit via cities like, Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, the northern city of Shijiazhuang and the northeastern city of Shenyang.
The southernmost island province of Hainan, which provided a 15-day visa-free stay for tourists coming in groups from 20 countries for many years, started to permit group as well as individual visitors from 59 countries to travel visa-free and stay for up to 30 days under certain conditions in May 2018.
Tourism revenue of China increased by 10.5 percent annually to 5.97 trillion yuan (about 856.5 billion U.S. dollars) in 2018, with over 79.9 million people working in tourism and related industries.