In 2025, China received over 150 million inbound tourist visits, a year-on-year increase of more than 17%; The total inbound tourism expenditure reached USD131.1 billion, surging 39.2% year on year. Among them, the number of foreign nationals entering China visa-free exceeded 30 million, accounting for as high as 73.1% and rising to 49.5% year on year.
On 20 th Mar 2026, the China Ministry of Commerce, along with 8 other ministries, issued a number of policies to uphold the China inbound tourism development from multiple dimensions: building a national tourism brand, enhancing targeted global marketing, and enriching inbound tourism product supply, laying a solid policy foundation for the industry.
The 2026 China Outbound & Inbound Travel Market (COITM) will be held from 14–16 October at New Hall (Hall 11) of the National Agricultural Exhibition Center in Beijing. Focused on two-way matchmaking for outbound and inbound travel, COITM 2026 is expected to gather tourism resources from 50 destination countries worldwide, covering the entire industry chain including national tourism offices, airlines, hotel groups and travel agencies. The event will bring together
300 domestic and international exhibitors and over 4,000 professional trade visitors, enabling face-to-face precise cooperation between global cultural and tourism enterprises, and unlocking core links for customer acquisition and channel expansion.
By the middle of March, dozens of overseas travel operators from Thailand, Kazakhstan, India, Philippines, UK, Bulgaria, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa and other countries have registered as Overseas Visitors & Buyers (China Inbound Focus).
For global travel professionals who have engagements in China inbound travel business, and are seeking for China tourism resources and services providers, please click here to register as International Visitor / Buyer (China inbound focus).
Source: COITM.