China's travel and tourism economy grew 9.9 percent in 2025, more than twice as fast as the global average of 4.1 percent, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC). WTTC President and CEO Gloria Guevara said that if China's tourism sector continues to grow at such a rate, it could become the world's largest tourism economy by the end of the decade, according to Bloomberg.

According to the WTTC, the surge in the country's travel and tourism economy was in large part due to a pickup of more than 10 percent in expenditure by international tourists.

China's travel and tourism sector contributed $1.8 trillion to global GDP, the council said.

Total international visitor arrivals to the Chinese mainland are expected to surpass 250 million in 2035, according to a forecast shown on the WTTC's website.

Chinese experts and industry insiders said that this surge is reflected in the flood of international tourists and content creators flocking to China's landmarks and hidden gems, as well as high-level visits by foreign leaders exploring more Chinese cities. This, they noted is a powerful testament to the appeal of "China Travel" and the viral "China maxxing" phenomenon.

Videos with the hashtag "China Travel" have continued to gain traction on overseas social media, vividly showcasing China's high-speed railways, street food, folk customs, and modern cityscapes. These videos have broken many international stereotypes about China and sparked greater curiosity and travel interest, Xu Xiaolei, marketing manager at CYTS Tours Holding Co, told the Global Times on Thursday.

"China has continuously optimized its inbound tourism environment to enrich cultural and tourism offerings and promote the prosperity of the inbound tourism market, delivering impressive results," Xu said.According to the National Bureau of Statistics, China received 154.5 million inbound tourists last year, up 17.1 percent year-on-year. Among them, 30.08 million foreign visitors entered visa-free, an increase of 49.5 percent. Total spending by inbound tourists reached $131.1 billion, up 39.2 percent year-on-year.

As of the end of 2025, the number of countries enjoying unilateral visa-free access to China had increased to 48.

During the Qingming Festival holidays in early April, inbound bookings nearly doubled year-on-year. Bookings from visa-free countries grew three times faster than those from non-visa-free countries.

Among the top 20 inbound source markets during the period, 15 were visa-free countries, according to data from Trip.com.

"These visa facilitation policies have significantly lowered the entry barriers for international tourists," said Xu.

The appeal of China's tourism for inbound visitors lies in its profound cultural heritage, continuous stream of innovative tourism products, deep integration of technology and tourism, and the friendliness of the Chinese people, Xu noted.

Inbound tourism destinations on Trip.com also showed a more diversified trend. Cultural heritage sites proved especially popular among long-haul travelers during the Qingming Festival holidays, with visitors from Italy, the US, and Spain making up 50 to 60 percent of attendees at such attractions.

Xu pointed out that unlike many countries where cultural and tourism products mainly focus on static viewing and passive sightseeing, China has actively integrated technology with culture and tourism, offering visitors innovative experiences.

"Museums now feature virtual immersive exhibitions that allow visitors to 'touch' history and 'converse' with cultural relics," said Xu.

Apart from museums, natural beauty tours and night tours have also been empowered with virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technology in China to give tourists a more immersive experience.

"Digital content empowered by artificial intelligence technologies can be combined with the natural scenes of scenic spots on AR and VR carriers, such as AR glasses, thus realizing an immersive travel experience," Chen Xi, a vice president of Rokid, a Hangzhou-based AR tech start-up, told the Global Times previously, adding that such technologies were already in use in the Shuoxihu scenic spot area in East China's Anhui Province.

Another example is Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, which has transformed its urban landscapes, rivers, and mountain cliffs into giant "screens" that project cultural stories on both sides of the Yangtze River using cutting-edge naked-eye 3D technology.

Night cruises along the Yangtze River in Yichang, Central China's Hubei Province, about 200 kilometers downstream from Chongqing, are also showcasing cutting-edge technology.

As the ships sail, they project stunning light shows onto mountains and cityscapes along the river, bringing local cultural stories to life, such as the story of Qu Yuan, a patriotic poet from the Warring States Period, the Global Times learned from the Three Gorges Tourism Group.