Beijing stands asis a top destination for overseas tourists visiting China and serves as a pivotal hub. According to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, in the first two months of this year, Beijing welcomed 255,000 inbound tourists, marking a fourfold increase compared to the same period last year. Recently, stimulated by various favorable inbound policies, the number of foreign visitors coming to Beijing for leisure continues to rise.
Rich Beijing Flavor Goes Global
Rows of vibrant red lanterns, auspicious Chinese knots adorning the streets... This year, the 2024 "Dragon Dance for the New Year" series, of joyful Spring Festival activities organized by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, reached 16 cities in 11 countries.S, where spectacular cultural performances and enthusiastic tourism promotions were warmly received by local residents.
"This year, the 'Spring Festival Celebration' series made its debut in seven cities, including London and Edinburgh. We also plan to promote it in countries likesuch as Spain, Singapore, and Malaysia, presenting the Beijing’s chapter of China's story from diverse perspectives," said a representative from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism. During the events, a "Hello, Beijing" photography exhibition was featured, showcasing the charm of Beijing's cultural and tourism resources through themes such as the capital's heritage, modernity, humanity, and ecology. Traditional cultural elements were also incorporated into the activities, with popular displays including delightful sugar paintings, skillful diabolo performances, and exquisite kites.
To bolster the international outreach of Beijing's culture and tourism, apart from the "Spring Festival Celebration" series, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism has explored various avenues. For instance, it collaborated with five inbound tourism enterprises from Beijing to participate in the 2024 ITB Berlin Tourism Trade Fair, unveiling a fresh image of "Beijing" in overseas cultural and tourism promotions. A vigorous implementation of the "Hello, Beijing" brand initiative was also undertakenlaunched, utilizing thematic articles, short videos, and live streaming to promote Beijing's tourism resources on international new media platforms.
Associate Professor Wu Liyun from the China Cultural and Tourism Industry Research Institute at Beijing Second ForeignInternational Studies University suggested enhancing experiential content duringin overseas cultural and tourism promotions. This involves utilizing technologies likesuch as VR, AR, and AI to vividly reflect the modern life ofin Beijing, showcase its cultural and tourism connotations, and present its multifaceted charm in three dimensions.
Focus on Detail Enhancement
As China's visa-free "circle of friends"policies continues to expand, the facilitatingon of payment for overseas visitors has garnered significant attention. In response, Beijing has focused on the minutiaedetails to ensure a comfortable experience for foreign tourists.
In March of this year, theGeneral Office of Beijing Municipal People’s Government Office issued the "Implementation Plan for Further Optimizing Payment Services and Enhancing Payment Convenience in Beijing," which explicitly aims to enhance online and offline consumer payment convenience, with a focusing on tourist attractions, tourist resorts, nighttime cultural and tourism consumption clusters, specialty commercial districts, tourist leisure streets, and important entertainment venues.
Recently, with the implementation of a series of favorable policies, major scenic spots in Beijing have seenwelcomed an influx of foreign tourists. On March 20th, 350 German tourists visited the Temple of Heaven to experience the unique charm of Beijing in spring. "In terms of service guaranteeassurance, we have bilingual signage for guideposts and site descriptions. For ticketing services, the online ticketing platform hasfeatures dedicated channels for passports and permanent residence permits, withoffering a fully English interface for easy navigation. This, providesing foreign visitors with more convenient tourism services. for foreign visitors," Eexplained a spokesperson from the Temple of Heaven Park.
A significant increase in foreign tourists visiting the Mutianyu Great Wall has been observed in recent days. "In March, the scenic area received a total of 91,300 visitors, with foreign visitors accounting for over 40%, reaching the highest level in history," said Luo Xing, Executive Deputy General Manager of the Mutianyu Great Wall Tourism Service Co., Ltd. Currently, the ticketing system of the scenic area has been integrated with Facebook, facilitating cross-border transactions and enabling foreign tourists to easily book tickets.
With the continuous increase in the number of inbound tourists, Beijing has been consistently enhancing its service reception levels. Recently, the new version of the Beijing International Gateway Website (International Web Portal of Beijing) was launched, offering services in nine languages, including English, Korean, and Japanese, to provide payment, travel, and tourism services for foreign friends and investors.
A representative from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism stated that to better promote the recovery and development of inbound tourism, the city has established a regular scheduling mechanism for inbound tourism. Led by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, in conjunction with finance, commerce, public security, transportation, and other departments, regular consultations are held to focus on addressing issues and bottlenecks, compiling a work ledger for the recovery and development of inbound tourism, and implementing dynamic tracking and resolution to expedite relevant work.
Currently, in terms of port clearance, Beijing provides 24-hour group tourist visa services for foreigners. As of March 26th, tourist group visas have been issued for 164 batches, totaling more than 1,400 foreign tourists. Regarding the construction of comprehensive service stations at Beijing Capital International Airport and Beijing Daxing International Airport, the People's Bank of China Beijing Branch has led the completion of the construction of overseas guest payment service centers. For ticketing in scenic spots and parks, keymajor tourist attractions such as the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, and Summer Palace have all equipped themselves with foreign currency POS machines, with 11 municipal parks in Beijing have completeding the application process for foreign currency POS machine banking services.
With the recovery of the international market, more international routes are gradually resuming service. Starting from midnight on March 31st, Air China began implementing its 2024 summer and autumn flight schedule. DuringFor this new season, Air China plans to operate 448 routes, which includinge 96 international passenger routes, covering 40 countries and regions, and serving 187 cities.
Exemplary Hospitality Never Ceases
With a focus onTo attracting and pleasinge visitors, various measures have been taken. Specifically In catetargetring to overseas tourists, the "Beijing New Discoveries" project has introduced 11 themes covering 88 emerging cultural and tourism destinations in Beijing. This initiative, aims to continuously enriching the supply of inbound tourism products such as cycling, intangible cultural heritage experiences, and leisurely strolls.
After the visa-free agreement between China and Singapore took effect, manynumerous Singaporean tourists have visited Beijing. "In March, withduring springtime bloom of BeijingBeijing blossoming in spring, our family of three coincidentally the day we arrived happened to coincide withon the day the launch of new activities launched at the Beijing Universal Resort. We Our family of three had a particularly enjoyable time," said Betty, a tourist from Singapore.
Some cultural and tourism venues that deepen the integration of culture, tourism, and technology have also attracted a largesignificant number of inbound tourists. Since March, there has been a surge in cultural and tourism consumption at the Shougang Park. "It's like a museum here, recording the story of China hosting the Winter Olympics," said a high school student from the United States during a visit to the blast furnace in Shougang Park.
As one of the popular spots for foreign tourists to visit, the 798 Art District has introduced various art exhibitions and cultural activities this year. It has also introduced art institutions and artistic services such as drama, music, film and television, as well as cultural and creative, coffee, and creativeinnovative dining servicescatering, launching new consumption scenarios such as unmanned vehicle consumption to meet the diverse consumption needs of domestic and foreigninernational tourists.
"The number of foreign tourists visiting exhibitions has been gradually increasing recently, and it is expected that the number of international tourists received this year will exceed 30,000," said a person in charge of the Beijing teamLab Wu Xiang Art Space, one of the first batch of national smart tourism immersive experience new space cultivation pilot projects. "We actively promote international exchanges and the integration of culture and tourism, warmly extending a warm invitation welcoming to friends from all countries to explore the world of science and technology art here."
Currently, hotels around popular tourist attractions are also in high demand. "Our hotel is close to Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and other attractionsscenic spots, attracting many foreign tourists to stay. In February, 166 foreign tourists stayed at the hotel, which increased to over 200 in March," said Shao Di, Brand Director of Yifei Hotel.
"Since the beginning of this year, in response to the increasing number of foreign tourists, travel agencies have been continuously enricheding cultural and tourism products and improvinged services. Currently, about 300 inbound tourists are received in Beijing," Zhang Jing, Deputy General Manager of the Holiday Company of the China Travel Service Group, told reporters. "These days, we are receiving tourist groups from Germany, Slovenia, and other places coming to Beijing. We will also welcome many European and American tourist groups in the summer."
Duou Junjie, co-founder of Beijing Jingqiabai Culture, a tourism planner, said, "We will create more tourist products that cater to the preferences of international travelers, integrating elements of culture, fashion, and technology, digging deep into cultural connotations, and telling good stories about China."
A representative from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism stated that in the future, Beijing will focus on the "eat, stay, travel, shop, and entertainment" chain, accelerate the promotion of various inbound tourism service enhanceimprovement work, continuously enrich cultural and tourism products, and improveenhance the sense of experience, satisfactiongain, and satisfaction of foreign tourists in Beijing tourism.
