Air China flight CA9597 takes off at the Daxing International Airport in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 25, 2019. (Xinhua/Ju Huanzong)

It is hoped that the US will work with China to further increase direct flights between the two countries, said China’s minister of culture and tourism on Tuesday, when meeting US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. 

“China attaches great importance to people-to-people and cultural exchanges with the US. The hope and foundation of China-US relations lies in the people, while the future lies in young people,” said Hu Heping, minister of culture and tourism of China.
 
It is hoped that the US will adjust its travel alert to China as soon as possible, facilitate Chinese citizens’ application for visas to the US, stop unwarranted scrutiny and harassment of Chinese citizens and groups visiting the US, and create better conditions for mutual visits of tourists between the two countries, said Hu.
 
On August 11, the US Department of Transportation said that the US and China will gain six more weekly round-trip flights as of September 1, which means that Chinese airlines will operate up to 18 direct flights between the two countries every week, with the number expected to increase to 24 flights per week from October 29, 2023.
Hu and Raimondo stressed the importance of people-to-people exchanges during the talks. 

As a result, China and the US agreed to hold the 14th China-US Tourism Leadership Summit in China in the first half of 2024 to further revive and develop tourism cooperation.

The 13th session was held in September 2019, before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The session took place in Seattle, where Chinese and US officials and industry leaders stressed the importance of tourism cooperation for bilateral ties and called for closer people-to-people exchanges. 

Chinese tourists spent more than $30 billion in the US in 2018, and Chinese tourists contributed nearly $100 million to the US economy every day, the Xinhua News Agency reported in 2019.

According to a report by the US National Travel & Tourism Office (NTTO), 2.8 million Chinese visitors accounted for only 4 percent of all inbound foreign travelers to the US in 2019, yet they accounted for 13 percent of spending. 

However, the NTTO said that fewer than 850,000 Chinese people will travel to the US in 2023. “That 68 percent drop in traveler volume translates to more than $20 billion that Chinese visitors will not spend in the US this year.”