African nations relaxing entrance policies

African governments are relaxing visa requirements for Chinese nationals and offering encouraging policies as a means to attract more Chinese tourists to visit, to stay longer and to spend more.

China is now the world's top tourism source market with 131 million outbound tourists in 2017.

"Chinese tourists are estimated to travel 700 million times in the next five years, which offers a huge business opportunity for countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, not only in their tourism industry but also tourism-related businesses," said Dorothy Tembo, executive deputy director of the International Trade Centre, at a recent industry forum during the fifth China Beijing International Fair for Trade in Services.