Brussels and Beijing get closer with visa-free travel promotion

A four-week video campaign has been launched at Brussels airport promoting visa-free travel to China. It's a roughly 20-second video but it aims to send a far more enduring message – that China is open to European travelers.

A delegation of Chinese and European officials attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the airport in Zaventem to mark the occasion. Speaking at the launch event, China's Ambassador to the European Union, Cai Run, said he hopes the promotional video will help open the door for more European visitors.

"Discover a China that is real, multi dimensional and comprehensive and share what they see and experience with their families and friends," the ambassador said.

In 2024 Belgium was included in China's visa-free travel program. Now 25 EU member states are allowed to visit the country for work or tourism for 30 days.

The push to attract more European tourists appears to be having the desired effect. Roughly two million Europeans visited the country in 2025 and this summer alone, travel bookings to China took off by an estimated 275% year on year.

"In my opinion if common people – not only politicians and diplomats – are able to visit the other country, this is the best way how to make friendship and how to find possibilities of collaboration," said Ondřej Dostál, Member of the European Parliament, to CGTN at the airport event.

Dostál adds that visa-free travel can open doors to more than just tourism.

"Some European children might want to go study AI or other technology like robotics and other areas in China," he said. "But for this the parents, mother and father, need to be sure that the country they send their kids to is safe – and the best way to find out that it's safe is to go there for a family holiday."

Dostál is among those calling for a reciprocal arrangement for Chinese visitors who are still subject to a visa when traveling to Europe's Schengen Area.

Despite recent turbulence in the China-EU relationship, officials at the video campaign airport launch say visa free travel can help ties between the two hit new heights.