An aerial drone photo taken on March 1, 2025 shows the cruise ship Europa 2 anchoring at a port in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province. [Photo/Xinhua]

Against the backdrop of mist-shrouded skyscrapers and the modern port facilities of downtown Qingdao in East China's Shandong province, the cruise ship Europa 2 glided gracefully through turquoise waters before docking at the Qingdao Cruise Home Port on Saturday afternoon.

Onboard were about 460 foreign travelers, mainly from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, who embarked on their cruise journey from Shanghai a week earlier and had previously berthed at Tianjin.

According to Qingdao's culture and tourism bureau, the ship run by the Hamburg-headquartered Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, carried the largest inbound European tour group that Shandong has received since 2020. It is also the first international cruise ship to dock in the province this year.

Last year, China implemented 18 major measures to facilitate inbound foreign trips, including the current 240-hour visa-free transit eligible for foreigners from 54 countries, and 15-day visa-free group tours for cruise travel.

So far, the country has implemented full visa exemptions with 26 countries and unilateral visa exemptions with 38 countries. All these preferable policies have resulted in an inbound trip boom.

According to the National Immigration Administration, 64.88 million entries and exits were made by foreigners in 2024, marking a year-on-year growth of 82.9 percent. Among them were more than 20 million visa-free trips, which increased by 112.3 percent year-on-year.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics show that foreign travelers spent $94.2 billion in China last year, increasing by 77.8 percent year-on-year, while statistics from the Ministry of Natural Resources demonstrate that the marine tourism industry achieved an added value of 1.6 trillion yuan ($221 billion), a year-on-year increase of 9.2 percent.

During this year's two sessions, Dai Bin, a member of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and president of the China Tourism Academy, called for more efforts to promote marine tourism, including measures to enhance specialized research and top-level design, and build Hainan into a demonstration province for marine tourism and Sansha city into an international marine tourism demonstration zone.

He expressed hope that the transportation, culture and tourism departments will jointly promote and regulate the development of cruise tourism. "Not every city is suitable for developing a cruise home port. Top-level design should be carried out based on the characteristics and development needs of each city to avoid homogenized competition and redundant construction," he said.

Dai also advocated for more convenient cruise travel within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

As "China Travel" becomes a new trend among foreign visitors, domestic tourist destinations are improving services catering to their needs.

Hang Kan, a deputy to the 14th National People's Congress and director of the Yungang Research Institute, which oversees the Yungang Grottoes in Datong, Shanxi, has observed an influx of foreign visitors to the grottoes in recent years.

With more than 59,000 Buddhist statues, the 1,500-year-old grottoes, which were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001, bear witness to the local adaptation and secularization of Buddhist art in ancient China.

Hang explained that while sculptures form a universal language, Westerners are particularly drawn to large, three-dimensional statues. Compared to China's many other grottoes, they exhibit more exotic influences resulting from East-West cultural exchanges. The historical connections make it easier for international tourists to understand its culture.

He said that last year they recruited foreign language guides in the hope of establishing a stable, professional team to better serve foreign tourists and promote the culture.

In January, they also conducted an English training program to ensure that tour guides, security staff, cleaners and ticket sellers are capable of basic conversations regarding dining, accommodation, transportation, sightseeing, shopping and entertaining.

This year, more than 40 cruise ships are expected to dock at the Qingdao Cruise Home Port, doubling the number from 2024.

To facilitate international cruise travelers, Qingdao has established a one-stop service center at its cruise home port, where foreign tourists can withdraw cash using major international credit cards, obtain SIM cards and access specialized boutique itineraries, said Pan Feng, director of the city's culture and tourism bureau.