150 million visitor arrivals poured into China, with the per capita consumption standing at merely 357.3 US dollars: Where lies the bottleneck restricting the revenue growth of China's inbound tourism sector?
Foreign tourists are pouring into China at an unprecedented speed.
On October 20, the National Immigration Administration released the latest data: in the third quarter, a total of 192 million entry-exit personnel were inspected nationwide, up 7.9% year on year. Among them, the number of foreigners entering China under visa-free policies reached 8.992 million person-times, accounting for 77.5% of the total number of inbound foreigners, up 24.1% year on year.
However, two days before this set of data was released, at a tourism industry conference, another set of figures drew attention: inbound tourism arrivals in 2025 reached 154.5 million person-times, but the per capita consumption was only 357.3 US dollars, merely 29.1% of the global average level.
This kind of "mismatch" did not end in 2025. Data from the Ctrip platform shows that in the first half of 2026, the number of inbound tourist arrivals and consumption increased by 49.72% and 44.01% respectively year on year.
The growth of consumption still lags slightly behind the growth of tourist flow.
Li Jun, director of the Institute of International Trade in Services of the Chinese Academy of Commerce, once stated that inbound tourism is no longer just an industry topic in the cultural and tourism sector, but an important intersection for building a new development pattern, promoting high-level opening-up, and facilitating high-quality consumption expansion. However, a large number of visitors does not automatically translate to strong consumption.
What kind of difficulties and pain points is inbound tourism facing today?
Per capita consumption of 357.3 US dollars, less than 30% of the global average
On October 18, at the 13th China Tourism Industry Development Annual Conference, Xu Peng, Vice Chairman of the World Tourism Alliance (WTA) and Chairman of Zhejiang Tourism Association, directly pointed out the structural contradiction of "large volume but low value" in inbound tourism: there were 154.5 million inbound tourists in 2025, but the per capita consumption was only 357.3 US dollars, merely 29.1% of the global average level.
Xu Peng said frankly that the relatively short length of stay and insufficient consumption depth are the most prominent shortcomings of current inbound tourism.
This "large volume but low value" is reflected on the streets as a series of low-priced "Chinese characteristic" experience items -- subway, shared bicycles, jianbing guozi, zhajiangmian, and Luckin Coffee.
Recently, a Spanish tourist asked a reporter from Time Weekly "whether shared bicycles are very cheap". When she learned that the starting price of shared bicycles of a certain brand is less than 2 yuan with a maximum duration of 60 minutes, she looked surprised and said that it was even cheaper than she expected.
A tour guide who is currently leading an English-speaking group told reporters that most of the foreign tourists in his group still prefer traditional attractions such as the Forbidden City, the Great Wall and the Temple of Heaven, and the difficulty lies in reservation, but the ticket prices are not high-consumption. New types of activities such as cycling in Beijing hutongs and drinking a cup of coffee also do not cost much.
He added that if you want to effectively connect different activities and provide high-quality tour guide services and experience design, the cost will be higher, with a per capita expenditure of about 3000 yuan for 2 days. The tour guide said that this is a medium price, even lower than the medium level among similar services.
However, the reporter from Time Weekly also noticed that many foreign tourists on the streets choose to travel independently instead of joining group tours. Many of them are fans of the "Becoming Chinese" trend. Since the beginning of 2026, this trend of imitating Chinese lifestyle has swept overseas social media. Along with it is the concept of "China Maxxing" (extreme Sinicization). Drinking hot water, soaking goji berries, and wearing slippers are regarded as the energy guide for Chinese-style health preservation.
In April this year, Wang Jun, Vice Director-General of the General Administration of Customs, stated at a press conference of the State Council Information Office that this cultural boom that started "in the cloud" has been transmitted to the consumption demand for Chinese products. The export volume of popular items such as thermos flasks and tea reached 5 billion yuan and 2.7 billion yuan respectively in the first quarter.
Many foreign tourists confessed to the reporter from Time Weekly that "Becoming Chinese" has indeed affected their itineraries. But when it comes to consumption, it is no more than buying a thermos flask worth dozens of yuan or a pack of goji berries. "Affordable" is their common impression of Chinese-style experiences.
Foreign tourists on the streets of Beijing Source: Reporter of Time Weekly
QR codes are blocking the wallets of foreign tourists
People have arrived, but consumption is somewhat "difficult". The light consumption structure of tourists is one aspect, and on the other hand, even small amounts of money of dozens of yuan are often stuck in various processes.
In March this year, nine departments including the Ministry of Commerce issued the "Policy Measures on Promoting Travel Service Exports and Expanding Inbound Consumption" (hereinafter referred to as the "Measures"). It has been mentioned that promoting inter-regional data interconnection, strengthening data monitoring and feedback, and improving the convenience of digital services for overseas personnel entering China.
Policies have been laid out in advance, but when it comes to the experience of tourists, the obstacles are still specific.
The reporter from Time Weekly found when interviewing foreign tourists that they are often tripped up by various QR codes.
Two Russian tourists could not distinguish the "travel" QR code from the "payment" QR code on Alipay, and spent a long time debugging in front of the subway gate until the reporter helped them.
A Spanish couple could not fundamentally understand that when taking public transport such as subways and buses, tourists need to present the QR code, but when using shared bicycles, they need to enter the scanning entrance to scan the QR code on the bicycle. The same problem also occurs in street shopping and consumption, as they always can't figure out when to scan the code and when to present the code.
The two Spanish tourists also encountered new troubles when they were about to try Hellobike shared bicycles. Although their Alipay was in English interface, it jumped to Chinese interface after scanning the QR code of the shared bicycle of that brand, and they did not know how to continue the operation.
A number of Singaporean tourists wearing ancient Chinese costumes who were experiencing travel photography at the Forbidden City wanted to use the Didi app to call an online car-hailing service to pick them up in the red restricted traffic zone for convenience, but failed all the time, until the reporter explained it to them and they understood and gave up.
In addition, the reporter from Time Weekly has helped many foreign tourists who could not find the subway entrance in the mall to show them the way for many times.
In autumn Beijing, the trees on Wusi Street are turning yellow, and Chinese and foreign tourists stop to take photos. However, when everyone heads to their next destination, completing consumption for daily life needs with digital identity is as convenient for Chinese people as it has high invisible thresholds for foreign tourists.
Foreign tourists taking photos of autumn scenery on the streets of Beijing Source: Reporter of Time Weekly
Lai Yang, an expert of the Expert Committee of the China General Chamber of Commerce, once said that for foreign tourists, there are different degrees of usage obstacles in links such as mobile payment, overseas bank cards, e-commerce, local life services, online reservation, identity authentication and Chinese interfaces, which directly restrict consumption in shopping, catering, entertainment and life services.
"The key to internationalization is not to add English signs, but to enable foreign tourists to use payment, e-commerce, ticket booking, food delivery, ride-hailing and instant retail just like domestic consumers. Otherwise, the more digitalized China is, the more serious the consumption bottleneck for foreign tourists will be, which directly determines whether China's existing consumption supply can be converted into inbound consumption," said Lai Yang.
Whether the visa-free dividend can continue becomes the next variable for inbound tourism
Enabling tourists to spend money requires technical support. Continuously attracting people to come in relies on policies.
On August 20, citizens of Kyrgyzstan and Vietnam can come to China under the 240-hour transit visa-free policy and Hainan's 30-day inbound visa-free policy. So far, the number of countries applicable for the 240-hour transit visa-free policy has increased to 57, and the number of countries applicable for Hainan's 30-day inbound visa-free policy has increased to 61.
In June this year, Jane Sun, CEO of Trip.com Group, mentioned when releasing the "China Inbound Tourism Development Report 2026" that the visa-free policy has become the core dividend driving growth. The growth rate of inbound tourists from visa-free countries far exceeds that of countries requiring visas, contributing the vast majority of the industry's increment, marking that China's inbound tourism has officially entered the strategic window period of the trillion-yuan market.
The warmth of the visa-free policy is most directly reflected in foreign tourists. The Lebanese tourist the reporter from Time Weekly met is a "China enthusiast" who is eager to travel to China even without visa-free access. This time she brought three of her British friends to China, who came along with her under the influence of her interest in China, thanks to the convenience of the visa-free policy.
A Canadian tourist said that he has traveled to China for the second time during the visa-free period, but his American friends cannot enjoy this favorable policy. He also regrets that the visa-free period for Canada is coming to an end.
His regret is not unnecessary. According to the information released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in May this year, at present, China's visa-free policy for Brunei has no set expiration date, the visa-free policy for Russia is valid until December 31, 2027, and the visa-free policies for the remaining 48 countries are all valid until December 31, 2026.
It is worth noting that the visa-free policy for Russia was originally due to expire on September 14 this year, and on May 20, China announced that it would be extended to the end of 2027.
Whether the visa-free dividend can continue has become a variable for the next stage of inbound tourism.
In fact, central documents are also sending positive signals. The "Measures" propose to build a national tourism brand, strengthen precise global marketing, and continuously improve visa policies. The Ministry of Commerce stated in its interpretation that it is necessary to make more international tourists "want to come to China" and "can come to China".
This article is from the WeChat Official Account "Time Weekly" (ID: timeweekly), written by WANG Chenyuan, edited by LI Weiwei, and published by 36Kr with authorization.