Authorities in China issued new guidelines delineating significant improvements to payment services for international travellers at starred hotels and tourist destinations. The guidelines were released by the People’s Bank of China, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, and the National Cultural Heritage Administration.
The new guidelines require hotels with three stars or above, as well top-rated tourist attractions to accept a wider range of payment methods, including including both domestic and foreign bank cards. The improvements are also aimed at offering more options for the elderly, who will now must be offered the possibility to pay in cash if they not have access to digital payment options. Key tourist attractions, public libraries, and museums are required to keep staffed payment services to make the payment transactions easier.
Authorities wish to actively promote the deployment of foreign currency exchange business outlets in cultural and tourism venues with a large number of foreigners coming to China. They want to improve the convenience of mobile payment in online and offline scenarios in cultural and tourism venues.
The updated guidelines are expected to streamline the number of transactions conducted by foreigners residing or traveling in China. There has been a broad use of local payment systems like WeChat Pay and Alipay, which were not as easily accessible for temporary visitors.
The People’s Bank of China, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage have affirmed that they will work closely with local governments to promote the implementation of the various initiatives of the new guidelines. The goal is to guide the financial industry, the cultural and tourism industry to work closely together.
Boosting tourism after Covid
After the pandemic and the strict zero-Covid measures, China has entered an era of opening up to welcome and foster international tourism. In March of this year, authorities announced that the country would be implementing a visa-free entry trial for six European countries. Citizens of Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg and Switzerland will no longer need to apply for a visa. The trial started on 14 March and is currently expected to last until 30 November.
“We hope more countries will offer Chinese citizens visa facilitation, and work with us to build fast-track networks for cross-border travels and encourage speedy resumption of international passenger flights. This will make it more convenient for Chinese citizens to travel abroad, and make foreign friends feel at home in China”, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on the sidelines of the second session of the 14th National People’s Congress.
Finally, since early 2024, a mutual visa-waver for stays of up to 30 days was reinstated between China and Singapore. A similar agreement with Thailand started applying on 1 March. The foreign ministry released data last month confirming that more than 3.2 million people had traveled to China for the Lunar New Year festival. According to the records, most of the foreign nationals came from France, Germany, Malaysia and Singapore.
