2025 Panoramic Analysis of Foreign Visitor Numbers to China: How Visa-Free Policies Are Reshaping Inbound Tourism

Data Overview: A Year That Hit a New History High

According to annual data released by the National Immigration Administration on January 28, 2026, in 2025 immigration authorities nationwide inspected a total of 697 million person-times of entry and exit, up 14.2% year-on-year, setting a new History high. Among these:

• Foreigners entering and exiting totaled 82.035 million person-times, up 26.4% year-on-year;
• Visa-free foreign entries reached 30.08 million person-times, accounting for 73.1% of foreign entries, up 49.5% year-on-year;
• A total of 2.02 million foreign visa documents were issued throughout the year.

In other words, nearly 3 out of every 4 foreign visitors entered China visa-free — the visa-free policy has become the primary engine of inbound tourism.

Policy Front: Three Rounds of Expansion for the Visa-Free «Circle of Friends»

In 2025, China's visa-free system continued to ramp up:

• Unilateral visa-free countries increased to 48, with 11 new additions including Brazil, Russia, and Sweden;
• Mutual visa exemption countries expanded to 29;
• 240-hour transit visa-free added Indonesia as an applicable country and 5 Guangdong ports as applicable entry points, bringing the national total to 65 ports.

Regional policies were also rolled out intensively: Yunnan implemented Xishuangbanna visa-free entry for tour groups from the 10 ASEAN countries, with Mohan Port processing over 160 ASEAN tour groups throughout the year.

Structural Changes: From «Comic Sightseeing» to «In-Depth Experience»

Beyond the numbers, what deserves more attention is the qualitative shift. In 2025, the way inbound tourists stay is shifting from «multi-city special forces Comic» to «single-city deep Leisurely Travel»: Chengdu's Teahouse, Chongqing's Two Rivers Cruise, and Shanghai's Citywalk routes all saw notable growth in inbound visitor traffic. Travel purposes are also diversifying — taking medical care as an example, the National Health Commission's annual report shows that in 2025, designated hospitals nationwide received approximately 1.28 million international patients, with the number of European and American patients nearly doubling year-on-year; dental implants, health checkups, and traditional Chinese medicine experiences became new growth points.

Regional Divergence: Who Are the Biggest Winners

Based on public data, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area was the first to gain momentum, driven by Hong Kong residents heading north and Southeast Asian source markets; the Chengdu-Chongqing region, leveraging Giant Panda, Food, and medical resources, became a new favorite for in-depth travelers from Europe and America; while Beijing and Shanghai continued to serve as international hubs. At the port level, Shenzhen airport port saw foreign entries and exits surpass the one-million mark in the first half of the year, the highest for the same period in History.

What Will 2026 Look Like?

Looking back at 2025, four forces — «visa-free expansion + flight route recovery + payment Convenientization + supply-side upgrading» — together created a new History high for inbound tourism. Entering 2026, this growth curve has not slowed — in the first half of the year, foreign entries already reached 22.914 million person-times, up 20.4% year-on-year (see our next article for details). What is certain is that the golden window for China's inbound tourism has only just begun.