Foreign national arrivals in China are down by about half from their pre-COVID peak. 来斤小仓鼠吧, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Since Xi Jinping came to power in November 2012, China has promoted itself as a destination for foreign tourists and international students. After peaking around 2018–2019, both categories have trended steadily downward and have not recovered to pre-COVID levels.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) claims 132 million inbound tourists in 2024. However, approximately 105 million, roughly 80%, came from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. These are residents of Chinese-administered or Chinese-claimed territories crossing an internal administrative boundary, many doing so multiple times per year for work, family, or shopping.
Stripping those out, China received 32 million genuine international visitors in 2024, a 51% decrease from the 65.7 million recorded in 2019 and a 10% decrease from 2023. Expanding visa-free access to 38 countries has failed to reverse the trend.
By comparison, the US received 72.4 million international visitors in 2024, up 9.1% from 2023 and reaching 91% of 2019 pre-COVID levels, more than double China’s genuine foreign visitor count. International visitors spent $253.9 billion in the US in 2024, approximately 27.5% above 2019 levels, while spending by foreigners in China has been steadily declining.
The decline in foreign students studying in China follows the same trajectory. Enrollment peaked at 492,185 in 2018, roughly double the figure from a decade earlier, with students from 196 countries and regions. By 2022, enrollment had fallen to 292,000. The most current data, published in April 2026 by China’s Ministry of Education, shows 380,000 international students enrolled for the 2024–2025 academic year, 23% below the 2018 peak. Of those, only 205,000 were pursuing degree programs, compared with 258,122 in 2018.
The financial performance of China’s airport stocks and travel retail sector provides a further indicator of the decline in overseas travel. Beijing Capital Airport, which trades on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, has been loss-making for at least five consecutive years. In 2024, operating expenses of $808 million exceeded revenue of $756 million, producing a net loss of $191 million. The stock currently trades around $0.32, with technical signals rated Strong Sell across multiple timeframes.
Hainan Meilan Airport tells a similar story: the stock fell 35.79% over the past year to about $0.80 as of April 2026, while the company carries approximately $575 million in debt against only $6 million in cash and recorded losses of $49 million on revenue of $321 million. China Tourism Group Duty Free, the country’s largest travel retailer, has seen its A-share fall 83% from its February 2021 peak of approximately $55.70 to approximately $9.35. Loss-making airports and collapsed valuations in travel retail reflect investor expectations of a sustained shortfall in both domestic and international travel demand.
China’s internet censorship system, known as the Great Firewall, blocks platforms that form the basic digital infrastructure of daily life for most Western travelers. Platforms unavailable in China include Google services, including Gmail and Google Maps, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. In April 2024, the Cyberspace Administration of China ordered Apple to remove WhatsApp and Threads from its Chinese App Store, and as of October 2024, over 16,000 apps were unavailable on Apple’s App Store in China out of 56,400 tested, including hundreds of VPN services.
Foreign news is equally restricted. Blocked outlets include the BBC, Bloomberg, The Economist, The Guardian, Le Monde, NBC, The New York Times, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post, among numerous others. CNN International, BBC World Service, and Bloomberg Television are available only in certain diplomatic compounds, hotels, and apartment blocks, subject to blackout during segments authorities deem sensitive. Journalists from Bloomberg and the New York Times have been harassed, threatened, and denied visa renewals.
Foreign visitors can attempt to circumvent internet restrictions using a VPN, but this carries legal ambiguity and practical difficulty. VPN websites are blocked inside China, meaning the software must be downloaded and configured before arrival. Chinese authorities conduct random phone searches and may require visitors to delete VPN apps from their devices. Travelers entering Xinjiang have reported that authorities installed surveillance apps on their phones.
Even with a VPN installed, the government continuously updates its censorship technology to block VPN servers and protocols, meaning reliable access cannot be guaranteed. Cashless payment presents a further barrier. China’s two dominant payment systems, Alipay and WeChat Pay, were historically linked exclusively to Chinese bank accounts, leaving foreign visitors unable to pay at businesses that no longer accept cash. China has taken steps to address this since 2023, but the problem has not been fully resolved.
The decline in foreign residents and business travelers predates COVID and has accelerated since. Beijing’s long-term foreign resident population dropped 40% over the preceding decade, falling from 37,000 to 22,000, while Shanghai saw a 64% decrease in five years, from over 200,000 in 2018 to just 72,000 by 2023. Exit bans have compounded the reluctance of foreign business travelers. The US Department of State warned that the Chinese government arbitrarily enforces local laws, issuing exit bans on US citizens and other foreign nationals without fair or transparent process. Exit bans can arise from civil business disputes rather than criminal or national security matters and are imposed without advance notice. The affected person typically learns of the restriction only when prevented from boarding an international flight.
Apart from the money lost in tourism, foreign direct investment into China has declined for three consecutive years. Net FDI inflows plummeted from a peak of $344 billion in 2021 to $51.3 billion in 2023 and further to just $18.6 billion in 2024, the lowest level in three decades, while the US received $292 billion in FDI that same year, remaining the world’s top investment destination for the thirteenth consecutive year. FDI into China fell a further 9.5% in 2025, following a 24.7% decline in 2024, marking the third consecutive year of contraction. A senior analyst at the International Crisis Group noted that companies from Japan, several of whose citizens have been detained on espionage grounds, have already reduced the number of staff based in China.
The number of foreigners entering, visiting, or living in China has steadily declined and does not appear to be recovering. Meanwhile, Beijing is losing the consumption spending, tuition fees, and foreign investment that they used to bring with them.
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