CCTV News: The reporter learned from a press conference held by the State Immigration Administration on the morning of January 14 that in 2024, the national immigration management agencies inspected a total of 610 million inbound and outbound personnel, an increase of 43.9% year-on-year; 20.115 million foreigners without visa entry were 112.3% year-on-year.
In 2024, the national immigration management agencies inspected a total of 610 million inbound and outbound personnel, an increase of 43.9% year-on-year. Among them, there were 291 million mainland residents, 254 million Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan residents, and 64.882 million foreigners, up 41.3%, 38.8% and 82.9% year-on-year respectively.
In the past year, the State Immigration Administration has continued to introduce a series of flexible and convenient policies for foreigners to come to China. In conjunction with relevant departments, it has implemented unilateral visa exemption for 38 countries and comprehensive mutual visa exemption with 26 countries. It has continuously optimized policies such as port visas, transit visa exemption, and regional entry visa exemption. The number of foreigners to China has increased significantly. In 2024, a total of 2.597 million foreign visa certificates were issued, an increase of 52.3% year-on-year; 20.115 million foreigners without visa entry were issued, an increase of 112.3% year-on-year. The number of people applying the transit visa-free policy increased by 113.5% year-on-year, especially after the comprehensive relaxation of the optimization policy, the number of people applying this policy to China increased by 29.5% month-on-month.
Speaker of the State Immigration Administration, Lu Ning, introduced that various favorable policies have been continuously introduced, making foreign tourists "come to China as they say" a reality, and has brought about a hot inbound tourism market in my country. Convenient channels to China not only promote personnel exchanges and cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries, but also enrich the inbound tourism forms, accelerate the process of integrated regional tourism cooperation, and inject new impetus into coordinated development of all-region tourism.
With the Spring Festival holiday approaching, the number of inbound and outbound tourists at ports nationwide continues to rise. The State Immigration Administration stated that it will strengthen monitoring of inbound and outbound traffic and port operation, organize service scientifically, and cooperate closely with relevant departments to further improve the port customs clearance guarantee capabilities and jointly ensure that port customs clearance is safe, efficient and smooth.
