CHONGQING (CQNEWS) -- "So beautiful! it's like a fairyland on earth!" Recently, as soon as the Century Legend Cruise Ship entered Kuimen, the passengers on board became excited and rushed onto the deck, raising their cameras to record the beautiful scenery.

"The scenery here is beautiful, the people are lovely, the transportation is convenient, the language environment is friendly, and the cost of travel is relatively low..." said Zhang Cuiyue from Singapore excitedly.

According to data from the Chongqing Exit and Entry Frontier Inspection Station, last year, the number of inbound and outbound flights at Chongqing aviation port reached more than 8,600, with more than 806,000 inbound and outbound passengers, indicating a clear upward trend in the number of inbound and outbound passengers.

Inbound tourism is the "golden key" to accelerating the construction of world-renowned travel destinations and international consumer center city. What is the prospect of Chongqing's inbound tourism market in 2024? Where are the key tourism-generating regions? In recent days, reporters have conducted investigations on this.

Multi-pronged policies taken to boost inbound tourism

On January 2, Thai Prime Minister Srettha stated in Bangkok that Thailand will implement a permanent visa-free policy for Chinese citizens from March 1, 2024. According to data from platforms such as Tongcheng and Fliggy, after the news was released, the search volume for Thai air tickets instantly doubled.

Thai PBS (Thai Public Broadcasting Service) then sought for opinions on "Going to China" on the online platforms: "Please tell me the name of the city in China you want to visit first after March 1st?" Among the Thai netizens who left messages, most of them expressed their desire to travel to Chongqing.

Coincidentally, at the end of last year, Huang Xuncai, Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore and Minister of Finance, said at a meeting of the Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC) that, on the basis of the increasing number of flights between Singapore and China, both sides will strengthen personnel exchanges between the two countries through a 30-day mutual visa-free arrangement.

As soon as this news was released, the search volume related on multiple tourism platforms also increased. As a traditional popular destination and tourism-generating region in Southeast Asia, Chongqing see its cultural and tourism enterprises “in high spirits”.

"The continuous optimization of exit and entry policies is absolutely beneficial for cross-border tourism consumption," said Qin Jing, General Manager of the Public Affairs Department of Ctrip Group, adding that China and Southeast Asian countries are important tourism-generating regions and destinations for each other. Mutual visa-free access will have a positive and far-reaching impact on cultural and people-to-people exchange exchanges and tourism development between China and Southeast Asia, greatly improve the convenience for various activities such as business, exhibitions, and travel, and also bring significant growth for China’s inbound tourism market this year.

Chongqing’s inbound tourism expected to become a "winner"

"Chongqing’s inbound tourism is expected to be a winner with the facilitation of visa-free access between China and Southeast Asian countries," said the relevant person in charge of Chongqing International Cultural and Tourism Window, the Chinese secretary unit of the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Culture and Tourism Industry Alliance.

In recent years, driven by the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Strategic Connectivity Demonstration Project and Lancang-Mekong Cooperation mechanism, Chongqing has interacted frequently with Southeast Asian countries.

In July last year, the cultural and tourism departments of Chongqing and Singapore also launched a "Chongqing-Singapore dual hubbed two-way travel between Chongqing and Singapore", organizing travel groups to mutually travel to promote the two-way flow of tourists from the two places to hit a record high.

Li Qing, Deputy General Manager of the Marketing Center of Chongqing Grand Century Cruises Co., Ltd., stated that since July last year, Century Cruises has actively organized partners from Southeast Asian tourism institutions to visit Chongqing for inspection, with significant results achieved and a record of more than 400 people travelling to Chongqing in a one-time group set .

"The continuous promotion of various favorable policies, the facilitation of visas, plus convenient transportation, friendly language environment, abundant tourism resources, and relatively low travel costs, make tourists from Southeast Asian the 'first wave of traffic driver' for the recovery of Chongqing's inbound tourism market." Liao Wei, General Manager of Chongqing China Travel Service Group Co., Ltd. also said that since last year, Southeast Asian tourism has been the main routes for their agency's inbound and outbound tourism. In terms of outbound tourism, Southeast Asian tourism has accounted for over 20% of the market share of outbound travel by Chongqing residents; In terms of inbound tourism, Southeast Asian tourists account for about 80% of Chongqing’s inbound tourism market.

Ctrip data shows that as from today to the Spring Festival holiday, bookings for travel from Thailand to Chinese Mainland have increased by 779% over the same period last year. Chongqing is one of the top ten popular destinations in China for Thai tourists to travel.

Chongqing taking multi-pronged measures to maintain the "traffic drivers"

So, how can we maintain the "first wave of traffic drivers" and make them increase, so as to help Chongqing accelerate the construction of a world-renowned tourist destination and an international consumption center city?

“At present, we are accelerating the establishment of the headquarters of the Lancang-Mekong Tourist Cities Cooperation Alliance in Chongqing, and have successfully held the "Cross-border Tourism Cooperation Advanced Seminar under Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Mechanism 2023", attracting nearly 20 personnel of government departments from Southeast Asian countries in culture, tourism, business, foreign affairs, and other fields to study in Chongqing. We have reached a cooperation intention with the Malaysian Tourism Authority to set up an office in Chongqing, meaning that Chongqing is about to have the first overseas tourism promotion agency,” introduced Guo Gang, Director of the Market Expansion Department of the Municipal Culture and Tourism Development Commission.

It is worth mentioning that in November last year, Kaixin International Cultural and Tourism Development (Chongqing) Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore Kaixin International Group, officially obtained the Travel Agency Business Licence, becoming the first foreign-invested travel agency approved for establishment in Chongqing. It is also a pilot approved by the State Council two years ago for Chongqing to establish foreign-invested travel agencies to engage in outbound tourism business outside of Taiwan.

With the extensive development of the company's business, it will further promote Southeast Asian tourists to Chongqing to study, visit and travel. (Translated by Hu Chuanmin, Fathom Language Limited)