SHENZHEN ranked fourth among popular domestic travel destinations for foreign tourists during this Spring Festival holiday, following Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou, according to Ctrip, a leading travel platform in China.

As of Feb. 14, the fifth day of the holiday, inbound travel orders for the Spring Festival holiday had increased by over three times compared to last year, which was nearly 50% higher than the 2019 Spring Festival.

China has seen a significant increase in the number of tourists from countries that China has a visa-free entry policy for, such as France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Malaysia, and Singapore.

During the Spring Festival holiday, inbound travel orders from these countries soared by 85% compared to 2019, according to Ctrip data. Tourists from countries including Japan, the U.S., South Korea, the U.K., Vietnam, and Canada also accounted for a large part of tourists visiting China.

Shenzhen saw travel orders surge by 165% and ticket sales grow by 53%, year on year, on the first day of the Spring Festival holiday, according to Ctrip.

The top five tourist attractions in Shenzhen were Window of the World, the Bay Glory Ferris wheel, Splendid China • China Folk Culture Villages, the Free Sky Observation Deck in Ping An Finance Center, and OH Bay. The main sources of domestic tourists were Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Hangzhou, and Chongqing.

Shenzhen residents were also eager to go abroad, with overseas travel orders on the first day of the holiday skyrocketing by 399% year on year. The most popular destinations were Thailand, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, and Australia.

Notably, the mutual visa exemption agreement China signed with Singapore ahead of the Spring Festival has boosted overseas tourism, as travel orders from the mainland to Singapore saw a staggering 960% year-on-year increase during the holiday. The island city-state was a big hit with tourists from Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Hangzhou.

According to the Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport, as of Feb. 15, nearly 34,000 inbound passenger trips had been recorded during the Spring Festival holiday. Over 4,200, or 12.7% of those inbound passenger trips, were made by foreign tourists.

(Zhang Yu and Zhou Junshu)