China urges easing of travel barriers as Apec tourism ministers meet in Macau

China will strengthen coordination with other countries to remove bureaucratic barriers and make travel more convenient for international tourists, Beijing’s tourism chief has told an Apec meeting attended by ministers from Hong Kong and other jurisdictions.

Sun Yeli, China’s minister of culture and tourism, also called for closer cooperation within the Apec community to promote tourism as a regional economic driver.

He highlighted that the “high-quality development of cultural tourism” was a key area in the country’s latest five-year blueprint covering 2026-30.

Sun was addressing the 13th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) tourism ministerial meeting, held in Macau on Saturday.

“China is willing to strengthen policy alignment with the governments of other countries and introduce more measures in areas such as mutual visa exemption, fast-track customs clearance, cross-border payments, and tax refunds for departing tourists to continuously improve tourism facilitation,” Sun told the meeting.

By the end of last year, China had established mutual visa exemption agreements with 29 countries and unilaterally offered visa-free entry to travellers from 48 countries. Sixty-five entry ports are covered under the 240-hour visa-free transit policy.