On July 16th, the National Immigration Administration announced the entry and exit data for the first half of the year, among which the entry data showed a significant increase. In the first half of the year, 13.64 million visa free foreigners entered the country, accounting for 71.2%, up 53.9% year on year. Since the beginning of this year, many favorable policies for inbound tourism have been released. As inbound tourism continues to heat up, tourism companies are also intensifying their efforts in the inbound tourism market, creating new inbound tourism products such as half day tours, in-depth tours, and seaside tours. At the press conference of the National Immigration Administration, Lv Ning, spokesperson and deputy director of the Comprehensive Department, stated that since the beginning of this year, the National Immigration Administration has continued to promote institutional opening in the field of immigration management and enrich visa free arrangements. In terms of optimizing the implementation of the transit visa free policy, Indonesia has been added as a 240 hour transit visa free country, and China's 240 hour transit visa free policy has been extended to 55 countries. In terms of innovative regional entry visa free policies, the implementation of visa free policies for tourist groups from ASEAN countries entering Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province has facilitated the entry and exit of tourist groups from Xishuangbanna Gasa International Airport Port, Mohan Railway Port, and Mohan Highway Port, and visa free entry into Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province for a stay of no more than 6 days. In terms of steadily expanding the scope of mutual and unilateral visa free countries, comprehensive visa free agreements have been signed with Uzbekistan, Malaysia, and Azerbaijan, adding unilateral visa free access to 9 countries including Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Uruguay, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, and Kuwait. In addition, the National Immigration Administration also continues to provide port visa facilities. For foreigners who hold ordinary passports and need urgent reasons to come to China or have humanitarian reasons, and cannot complete visas at embassies and consulates abroad, port visas should be handled according to laws and regulations. The number of foreigners entering and leaving the country increased steadily in the first half of the year, thanks to the favorable policies. The national immigration management agencies have inspected 333 million inbound and outbound personnel, a year-on-year increase of 15.8%. Among them, there were 159 million mainland residents and 136 million residents from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, up 15.9% and 12.2% respectively year-on-year; The number of foreigners reached 38.053 million, up 30.2% year on year. The national immigration management agency issued a total of 430000 port visas. Lv Ning stated that visa facilitation policies and measures have effectively driven a large number of foreign friends to come to China for tourism and business, driving sustained growth in inbound consumption, further enhancing understanding and friendship between Chinese and foreign people, and firmly building an important bridge for China's exchanges with the world. After entering the summer vacation, many tourism companies have also seized the popularity of inbound tourism, continuously increasing their efforts in the inbound tourism market and strengthening product supply. Zhang Kexiong, Assistant General Manager of China Tourism Group and Executive Director and General Manager of China International Travel Service Co., Ltd., mentioned in an interview with Beijing Business Daily that based on the transit time of inbound passengers, the company has created new inbound tourism products such as half day tours of the Forbidden City, check-in at well-known internet famous restaurants, and foreign language tour guides accompanying explanations. Zhang Jing, Deputy General Manager of Shenzhou International Travel Group Holiday Company (hereinafter referred to as "Shenzhou Holiday"), introduced that the most popular products of Shenzhou Holiday include traditional tourism routes such as "Beijing Xi'an Shanghai" and Yangtze River cruise ships, as well as deep experience routes such as "Chengdu Guilin Guangzhou". Shenzhou Holiday will focus on the excellent cultural and tourism resources in western China to develop line products, and launch western tourism product series, such as Xizang Tour, Yunnan in-depth tour and other products. Zhang Jing mentioned that summer is not the traditional peak period for inbound tourism. Due to the overall high temperature in China, many overseas tourists also choose seaside vacations, such as Sanya in Hainan. In addition, we will continue to launch more targeted hot tourist cities and surrounding tourism products for tourists in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Wang Yi, Sales Director of Beijing Baida Tourism Co., Ltd., also mentioned that with the favorable visa free policy, inquiries for inbound tourism have become more frequent and the inquiry cycle has become shorter. In this trend, inbound travel agencies need to have very good resource reserves, such as developing more halal restaurants for tourists from countries like Indonesia and Saudi Arabia to meet their special dining needs. (New Society)