Beyond pandas, open doors draw visitors from afar

I walked into the conference room not expecting much. Another tourism promotion event, another PowerPoint deck, another round of polished talking points. But something felt different last month as soon as I stepped into the room where officials from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, told attendees that the city, with thousands of years of history, has much more to offer than its iconic giant pandas.

Industry representatives, policymakers, travel agents, and service providers packed the room shoulder to shoulder. There was an energy I had not felt at one of these gatherings in a long time.

Jason Carter, regional director for the USA and Canada at the World Travel and Tourism Council, or WTTC, said China's travel and tourism industry had entered a period of rapid expansion. His statement was hard to argue with: the numbers were solid. In 2025, China hosted more than 68 million international visitors, up 15.5 percent year-on-year, nearly triple the global average. Those visitors spent $135 billion in China, while the country's total economic contribution from tourism reached $1.8 trillion, growing 9.9 percent year-on-year — more than double the global average of 4.1 percent.

I found myself joining the chorus of loud cheers and applause.

Well, I am not ashamed of losing my composure. Since the COVID-19 pandemic first struck in 2019 and cast its long shadow over the world, I have felt suffocated by a relentless flood of gloomy headlines — economic downturns, business slowdowns, store closures, declining tourism, eroding public confidence, and the drumbeat of war. Against that bleak backdrop, words like growth, expansion, job creation, and profit, riding on the wave of China's tourism boom, are nothing short of music to my ears.

Carter was clear that none of this was accidental. The recovery is the product of China's real work at every level. Services were upgraded, policies refined, and procedures streamlined to remove any hurdle an overseas visitor might face. Vowing to continue its openness, China now offers visa-free access to 50 countries unilaterally, with reciprocal agreements covering another 29. More than 30 million foreign nationals entered China visa-free in 2025 alone.

This is a remarkable gesture from China — an open, standing invitation to friends all over the world, extended with hospitality and backed by millennia-long history, cultural richness, and tourism resources.

Chengdu is a microcosm of this broader trend. Qiu Wei, director of the Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Culture, Broadcast-TV, and Tourism, promoted his hometown at the event by underscoring Chengdu's charm of blending high-tech innovation and ecosystem diversity with a laid-back lifestyle.

It seems to me that being named the Happiest City in China for 17 consecutive years is a strong selling point for Chengdu — or any place that can provide a temporary haven for people worn down by the pressures of modern life. Fortunately, China has many similar tourist attractions to host those who are heart-wrenched and physically fatigued.

The hard work appears to be paying off. I talked to Alex Mortensen, sales manager at the HiSEAS International Tourism Group, who specializes in arranging trips to China for US travelers.

What impressed him the most about traveling in China was the efficiency, well-trained staff, and cost-effectiveness. He stayed at the Four Seasons in Chengdu with his family in June. "Compared to what you pay in the United States, the price was incredibly enticing — and the service was exceptional."

Mortensen is neither the first nor the last to return with a positive impression of China, I believe. When these positive experiences become the new normal and go viral across internet communities, the success story of China's tourism industry will continue.

Deputy Consul General Cao Yibin closed warmly. "Tourism brings people closer together and builds lasting friendship," she said. In the current climate of US-China relations, those words carry particular weight.

I left with a half-built Chengdu itinerary on my phone and, for the first time in a long while, something that felt like optimism. The numbers are real. The doors are opening. The cities are ready.

The only question is whether enough people on this side of the Pacific are willing to go find out for themselves. Based on what I heard there, more and more of them are.

The author is a China Daily correspondent based in San Francisco.

Contact the writer at junechang@chinadailyusa.com