China visa-free push helps global travel industry outpace future economic growth

You may find this year's World Travel Market (WTM) in east London more crowded than last year, as more tourism professionals, officials and travelers gather for one of the world's largest travel events.

A report released at this year's WTM predicts that the global travel industry will grow at a faster pace -  3.5 percent annually - than the broader global economy, which is expected to expand by 2.5 percent over the next decade.

The research shows more travelers are heading further afield and booking longer stays. Tourists are prioritizing travel spending, increasingly choosing experiences over material goods. Live events are also emerging as a key driver for the sector. 

Meanwhile, economic growth in emerging markets - particularly in the Asia-Pacific region - will fuel additional travel demand.

According to the World Travel & Tourism Council's 2025 Economic Impact Research, conducted in collaboration with Oxford Economics, the global travel industry is expected to generate more than 16 trillion US dollars by 2035, accounting for nearly 12 percent of global GDP.

AI drives a new era of travel

Digital platforms continue to drive industry growth, and artificial intelligence has quickly become a major force - with three times as many travel professionals saying AI tools will help increase overall travel spending, according to the report.

Trip.com - one of the world's largest online travel platforms - is a regular participant at WTM. The company is piloting a new "travel buddies" programme in Asia, designed to match travelers heading to the same destinations. It is also promoting its AI-powered Trip Genie assistant to help users plan their journeys.

"AI is definitely an enabler. It's not once and for all, but at the end of the day, AI is there to help us be more efficient, to be more tailored to the needs of the customers in terms of planning their travel itinerary," said Boon Sian Chai, Managing Director of International Markets at Trip.com Group. "We have seen a 200 percent search in the usage of Trip Genie and a 100 percent search in the browsing time that people are using on Trip Genie."

Sébastien Lion, a travel expert specializing in AI, said the use of AI in travel is more widely accepted among younger Chinese travelers.

"AI is changing so many sectors and subjects, and in fact, due to the Chinese strategy on AI and the use of AI by the young generation, the Chinese young generation, around 80 percent, are using AI in order to think, decide, and experience travel," said Lion, Associate Lecturer at Sorbonne University. "I think COVID has accelerated the digitalization and the AI implementation in general in China and for tourism."

China's visa-free push a boost to global tourism

China is showcasing its largest-ever delegation at this year's WTM - around 200 representatives from 13 provinces, municipalities and regions, joined by 56 travel firms and eight major airlines - in a united effort to promote Chinese culture, tourism and aviation.

The country's expanding visa-free list has become one of the major talking points at WTM, widely seen as a catalyst for global tourism recovery.

The event comes just days after Beijing announced an extension of its visa-free entry policy for more than 40 countries until the end of 2026.

For Chinese exhibitors, that means more tourists and more business. Shanghai - China's financial centre - has been among the biggest beneficiaries of the scheme.

"Since the visa-free policy was introduced at the end of 2023, inbound tourism to Shanghai has risen sharply," said Rong Rong from the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism. "Visitor numbers grew from 3.64 million in 2023 to 6.3 million by the third quarter of 2025. We expect to surpass 8 million by the end of the year, that's about 90 percent of what it was in 2019. We look forward to the policy's continued boost to Shanghai's inbound tourism."

More broadly, official data shows that visa-free travel is driving a rapid rise in international visitors to China. Between July and September alone, the number of trips made by foreign nationals to China under the visa-free scheme exceeded 7 million, up more than 48 percent year on year.

Trip.com's Chai said his travel platform has seen tremendous growth thanks to the visa-free policy, with more than 70 percent of the increased travel coming from countries benefiting from the scheme.

He said: "On our own platform, we're seeing triple-digit growth in terms of in-bound travel from the rest of the world into the Chinese mainland. Of course, the big numbers are coming from Asia-Pacific, like Korea and Malaysia itself. But in the long-haul markets like Europe, we are seeing, for example, Russia, France, Germany, Spain and Italy, they are growing triple digits in terms of inbound travel into the Chinese mainland."

Dave Goodger, Managing Director of Tourism at Oxford Economics, said China's visa-free scheme sends a strong signal of openness that continues to fuel global travel demand.

"Those perceptions of openness, that welcome that comes from a visa-free scheme is a real boost to travel and when countries open their visas to countries you then see an uplift of between 15 and 20 percent on average over subsequent years. People really responding to that additional welcome."