A late-night Xinhua dispatch on 13 February reports that China’s outbound market is poised for its strongest surge since 2019, driven by a rare nine-day Spring-Festival break and an expanded 45-country visa-waiver list. The National Immigration Administration projects daily cross-border flows will average 2.05 million—up 14 percent on 2025.
Regional tourism boards from Thailand to Australia have ramped up charter slots, while Cambodia will waive e-visa fees for Chinese arrivals between 15 Feb and 31 Mar to capture spill-over traffic. Airlines have scheduled an additional 1,200 flights to and from mainland China during the holiday window.
For the corporate sector, the rebound means fiercer competition for seat inventory on short-notice business trips, particularly on “dual-purpose” routes such as Shanghai–Singapore where leisure surges overlap with financial-district demand. Travel managers are advised to secure corporate fare buckets early and monitor dynamic-pricing alerts.
![Xinhua: China’s Outbound Boom Set to “Gallop” Asia-Pacific Tourism Over New-Year Holiday]()
Navigating the evolving web of exemptions can still be tricky—especially for travelers adding multi-country stopovers or requiring multiple-entry permits. Services like VisaHQ (https://www.visahq.com/china/) simplify the process by verifying real-time eligibility, highlighting any supplemental documents that remain necessary, and even arranging courier handling when traditional visas are still required, saving both leisure and business travelers valuable time.
The surge also tests China’s new digital-payment reforms aimed at making UnionPay, Visa and Mastercard acceptance universal by mid-2026. Merchants in Beijing and Shanghai pilot zones now offer QR-code interoperability that allows foreign bank cards to be linked to Alipay wallets—a convenience that could become permanent if user uptake stays high.
Tour operators view the Year of the Horse as a psychological turning point: with most major economies avoiding recession and new visa facilitation in place, they expect outbound Chinese trips to exceed 170 million in 2026, nearing the 2019 record.
Regional tourism boards from Thailand to Australia have ramped up charter slots, while Cambodia will waive e-visa fees for Chinese arrivals between 15 Feb and 31 Mar to capture spill-over traffic. Airlines have scheduled an additional 1,200 flights to and from mainland China during the holiday window.
For the corporate sector, the rebound means fiercer competition for seat inventory on short-notice business trips, particularly on “dual-purpose” routes such as Shanghai–Singapore where leisure surges overlap with financial-district demand. Travel managers are advised to secure corporate fare buckets early and monitor dynamic-pricing alerts.
Navigating the evolving web of exemptions can still be tricky—especially for travelers adding multi-country stopovers or requiring multiple-entry permits. Services like VisaHQ (https://www.visahq.com/china/) simplify the process by verifying real-time eligibility, highlighting any supplemental documents that remain necessary, and even arranging courier handling when traditional visas are still required, saving both leisure and business travelers valuable time.
The surge also tests China’s new digital-payment reforms aimed at making UnionPay, Visa and Mastercard acceptance universal by mid-2026. Merchants in Beijing and Shanghai pilot zones now offer QR-code interoperability that allows foreign bank cards to be linked to Alipay wallets—a convenience that could become permanent if user uptake stays high.
Tour operators view the Year of the Horse as a psychological turning point: with most major economies avoiding recession and new visa facilitation in place, they expect outbound Chinese trips to exceed 170 million in 2026, nearing the 2019 record.
