A foreign tourist takes a picture at Qianmen Street in Beijing on January 1, 2026. Photo: VCG

The inbound travel sector saw robust growth over the New Year holidays, with passengers using non-Chinese passports booking flights to 97 domestic cities, travel platform Qunar revealed on Saturday. The most popular destinations were Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Beijing.

Foreign visitors were also flocking to South China's Hainan for the New Year. During the New Year holidays, Haikou and Sanya were the two cities with the fastest-growing inbound flight bookings nationwide, with increases exceeding 300 percent and 500 percent respectively. Tourists from Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea, Vietnam, Australia, and Russia were the most enthusiastic about celebrating the New Year in Hainan, Qunar said. 

Beyond Hainan, other cities also saw significant growth in inbound tourism during the New Year holidays, including many distinctive smaller cities such as Dali and Xishuangbanna, Southwest China's Yunnan Province, which recorded growth rates exceeding 300 percent.

In terms of inbound tourism by country, the most enthusiastic visitors to China during the New Year holidays came from neighboring countries, including Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, and Indonesia, according to Qunar. 

Additionally, tourists from Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, the US, and Australia also showed notable growth. Visitors from Saudi Arabia increased by 5.3 times year-on-year, while those from Uzbekistan rose by 4.7 times, according to Qunar.

Data from Trip.com also showed that during the New Year holidays, the inbound tourism market maintained robust growth, with attraction ticket bookings surging by 110 percent year-on-year and bookings for experiential entertainment products for inbound travelers skyrocketing over 30-fold. 

Popular destinations included Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and Guangzhou. The primary source markets and regions were the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and South Korea.

Data from leading travel platforms indicate that China's inbound tourism is experiencing high-quality growth, marked by a shift from traditional sightseeing to in-depth thematic travel, Wang Xiaoyu, a specially appointed expert from the World Tourism Cities Federation, told the Global Times on Saturday. 

Wang further highlighted that the geographic distribution of inbound tourists is becoming more balanced. While European and US travelers previously dominated, Southeast Asian markets are now expanding rapidly, contributing to a more equitable spread of tourists across continents.

Additionally, Wang noted that during the recent New Year holidays, tourism preferences have grown increasingly diverse. Inbound visitors are now seeking a wider range of experiences - from historically and culturally rich itineraries to community-based local tours, along with various personalized thematic travel options.

On December 31, a report released by Trip.com showed that inbound tourism bookings in the first three quarters of 2025 had already achieved 100 percent growth, with orders from visa-exempt countries surging by an average of 153 percent. 

By the end of 2025, Beijing ports had handled over 21.4 million inbound and outbound passengers, a 17.4 percent year-on-year increase and the highest volume since 2020. Foreign nationals accounted for more than 6.5 million of this total, representing 30.4 percent of all passenger traffic and a significant increase of 34.5 percent over the previous year, local official data showed on Saturday.