Chinese Tourism to US Falters as Visa Application Still Behind

Although there has been a recent return of travel activity in 2023 and 2024, Chinese travelers’ interest in visiting the United States is struggling to reach befor recent times levels.

According to a state Department official, visa applications submitted by the Chinese have so far reached 60% of the level of 2019, when 1.2 million visa applications were submitted, VisaGuide reports.Global reports.

We have already seen the number of visa applications tripling in China since last year, but we are far from where we were before. We did more visas [allocations] in China before the recent times than anywhere else.

Julie Stufft, deputy assistant secretary for Visa services.

The result can be shocking considering that China has always been one of the main countries with the most US visa applications. A total of 417,000 visa applications were filed in 2023, a decrease of 66.7%.

China in the Top 5 US visa applicants over the past decade

China was one of the five countries with the highest number of visa applications filed in the United States between 2014 and 2023.

Between 2014 and 2018, China was the country with the highest number of visa applications for the United States, with approximately 9.8 million applications, while on average 1.9 million applications were made each year.

The lockdown, travel restrictions and the hesitation to travel after the recent times have left Chinese tourists quite isolated between 2019 and 2022. China was blocked in the last two months of 2019, which was enough for Mexicans to become the main source of visa applications. Since then, the trend has only gone down.

Besart Bajrami, founder of VisaGuide.World

In fact, Chinese nationals have applied for fewer and fewer US visas since 2019. In 2021, at the height of the recent times, only 108,000 visa applications were filed–the lowest record in ten years.

However, the trend also shows that Chinese tourists are open to traveling to the United States despite the recent times affecting visa applications, with visa applications increasing by 48.3% in 2022 and by 158% in 2023 to reach more than 400,000 applications.

China wants to improve connectivity to boost tourism

This year, the Chinese government announced several initiatives aimed at improving its connectivity with the world, including visa-free entry to certain countries, as well as the relaxation of visa requirements.

In March, China expanded the List of countries allowed to enter without a visa for 15 days, including Switzerland, Ireland, Hungary, Austria, Belgium and Luxembourg, with the measure applying from March to the end of 2025. Nationals of these countries are allowed to visit China during this period for various reasons, including tourism, family visits and business trips.

We are ready to work with the relevant authorities to promote the negotiation and signing of higher-level free trade agreements, expand the global network of free trade zones, and maintain the stability and fluidity of the global supply chain data chain of the industrial chain.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi

The Visa-free Policy has significantly boosted tourism in China, with foreigners making about 2.95 million trips to China in the first two months of the year. While attendance is estimated at 2.3 times that of 2023, the increase is due to the Chinese New Year celebrations, which attracted millions of visitors in February.