[Photo provided to China Daily]

Tourism deals

During the Belt and Road Forum, governments reached more than 200 agreements in five key areas, among them several related to tourism.

The Chinese government signed the Governmental Tourism Cooperation Agreement with Poland; the National Tourism Administration signed a tourism cooperation agreement with Uzbekistan; a Memorandum of Understanding on Furthering Tourism Cooperation was signed with Chile, and an Implementation Plan for a Memorandum of Understanding on Tourism Cooperation was agreed with Cambodia.

Promoting tourism was also the theme of the just-concluded 14th China-ASEAN Expo in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

Under the framework of Belt and Road Initiative, China has continuously strengthened cooperation with the countries involved in this plan, making them new destinations for Chinese visitors. Countries such as Kazakhstan, Belarus and Mongolia are seeing more Chinese tourists due to promotion of the Year of Sino-Kazakhstan Tourism, a visa-free policy by Belarus, and Sino-Mongolian cross-border railway day trips.

Changes in visa policies have proved particularly attractive to Chinese tourists. More than 20 countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative allow Chinese citizens to travel without visas, or with visas provided on arrival. Nearly 10 countries have conditional visa-free travel, electronic visas and other preferential policies for Chinese visitors.

For example, Serbia has been offering visa-free access to Chinese since January. Turkey allows all Chinese tourists with a valid passport to apply for an e-visa, compared to previous years when the e-visa was only available to those who had valid Schengen visas or visas from Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development members. Ukraine provides Chinese travelers and business people with a 15-day visa on arrival.