Summer travel season concludes with a cross-border tourism boom

With streamlined visa policies for multiple countries and the steady recovery of international routes, this summer saw shared travel enthusiasm in Jiangsu, with journeys flowing both ways. Latest statistics show that Jiangsu's ports handled 914,000 cross-border travellers over the holiday season.

Destinations such as South Korea and Thailand proved especially popular for outbound trips. Meanwhile, inbound visitors flocked to iconic cultural sites like Nanjing's Qinhuai River, Suzhou's classical gardens, Yangzhou's Slender West Lake, and Changzhou's Tianmu Lake for a taste of Chinese culture.

"With China's visa-free policies expanding and more traveller-friendly measures in place, rising passenger flows are now translating into longer stays and higher spending," said Chen Xiangyun, Director for Border Inspection of Jiangsu Border Inspection Administration. During the summer holidays, Chinese travellers cleared border checks in under 30 minutes at all Jiangsu ports, while processing for foreign visitors also became much faster.

At Jiangsu's largest airport, Nanjing Lukou International, foreign travellers could complete entry registration in seconds via self-service kiosks that print arrival cards. Many noted that what once took 10 minutes of manual paperwork now takes just 30 seconds with online pre-application and on-site printing.

International passenger traffic through Nanjing Lukou International reached about 575,000 this summer, with August alone hitting 295,000, the highest in nearly a year. Wuxi Sunan Shuofang International Airport also saw record numbers, handling 16,000 international visitors over the summer, including more than 4,000 visa-free entries, a 253% year-on-year increase.

Source: Jiangsu General Station of Immigration Inspection, Jiangsu Provincial Data Bureau