As visa-free policies continue to expand, international flight networks rebuild, and young overseas travelers flood TikTok with viral #ChinaTravel videos, China’s inbound tourism stands on the cusp of a major boom in 2026.
The stereotypical checklist tour of the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and giant pandas is fading away. In its place is a global shift toward deeper, more immersive travel experiences:
Foreign tourists no longer merely want to sightsee China. They yearn to explore its hutongs, experience the rhythms of local life, understand how people live, and briefly feel like locals themselves.
Charlie Li, CEO of TravelDaily, held an in-depth dialogue with Junjie Dou, a state-certified special-grade tour guide with 25 years of experience in inbound tourism. They discussed product innovation, service upgrades and industry trends, examining the logic behind China’s shift from sightseeing and photo stops to immersive travel—and how the industry can seize the opportunity.
From Dou’s perspective, China has already put much of the essential infrastructure in place for inbound tourism, including visas, flight connections, internet access and mobile payments. The real competitive edge, however, will always lies in people, content and interpretation.
Few anticipated that the Beijing Central Axis cycling tour, now popular with both Chinese and international travelers, was an innovation Dou developed out of necessity during the pandemic.
In 2021, inbound group bookings plummeted. He took a step back and asked himself: What should come next?
The arrival of e-bikes gave him the answer.
Cars cannot enter many hutongs, while walking over long distances can be exhausting.
Cycling extends the Central Axis into a 20-kilometer immersive route, allowing travelers to stop whenever they wish and explore at their own pace, overcoming many of the limitations of conventional sightseeing tours.
He invited 13 travel agency peers to test the route free of charge and received enthusiastic feedback: “I have lived in Beijing for years, but I have never experienced the city like this.”
An Italian tourist who has visited China 38 times remarked: “I had been to the Forbidden City and the Great Wall dozens of times and had grown tired of them. This cycling route showed me the real Beijing.”
Dou and his team are now developing new cycling itineraries integrating Beijing’s nightlife, street culture and local cuisine, further expanding the depth of their travel offerings.
He has also identified a clear shift in distribution. Organized inbound tour groups now account for merely 15%–16% of the market, while independent travelers make up over 80%. Profit margins under the traditional B2B model have shrunk to 5%, whereas reaching overseas consumers directly can lift profits by 20%.
Dou therefore built an independent website and rolled out presence on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. By leveraging social media to engage global travelers directly, he is embracing a new era of direct-to-consumer marketing in inbound tourism.
