At the opening day of the 40th International Travel Expo (ITE) in Hong Kong on June 11, the Asia Tourism Exchange Center—an agency under China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism—organised a high-profile “Inbound Visa-Free Policy Briefing and ‘One Trip, Multiple Stops’ Product Launch.” Officials walked overseas travel companies, airlines and chambers of commerce through the fast-expanding roster of unilateral and reciprocal visa-free arrangements that now covers 50 countries and the 240-hour transit-without-visa program available to travellers from 55 nations.
![Hong Kong hosts visa-free policy briefing, unveils 10 new “multi-stop” inbound itineraries for Mainland China]()
For visitors who still need formal documentation—or simply want added peace of mind—VisaHQ can simplify the process. The company’s China portal (https://www.visahq.com/china/) provides real-time guidance on eligibility for the new visa-free rules, offers quick visa assessments, and handles end-to-end applications for tourists, business travellers and MICE groups alike, ensuring trips go ahead smoothly even as regulations evolve.
The briefing comes as Beijing extends several trial waivers to 31 December 2026 and adds markets such as Canada, the United Kingdom and Sweden to the 30-day visa-free list. Speakers emphasised that most short-term visits for tourism, business meetings, trade fairs and family reunions can now be completed with nothing more than a passport and a return or onward air ticket, provided travellers enter through one of 60 designated ports. To help overseas wholesalers convert the new flexibility into bookings, the organisers released 10 themed “One Trip, Multiple Stops” routes that link Hong Kong with neighbouring Greater Bay Area (GBA) cities and interior cultural hubs such as Xi’an and Chengdu. Sample packages connect Hong Kong’s aviation gateway with high-speed rail segments to Shenzhen for biotech park visits, then on to Guangzhou for Canton Fair sourcing before ending in Guilin for eco-retreats—all within a single electronic itinerary. From a corporate-mobility perspective, the initiative lowers compliance friction for multinational firms that use Hong Kong as a staging point for China travel. HR mobility teams were told that employees who qualify for visa-free entry can now piggy-back leisure days onto back-to-back meetings in multiple mainland cities without triggering extra visa applications or residence-permit requirements. Travel managers should update policy matrices to flag which passport-holders can shift from business (M) visas to visa-free entry and which ports support 24-hour consular services. Travel analysts forecast the policy briefing will accelerate the rebound of inbound MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) traffic. With Hong Kong serving as a fully reopened aviation hub—passenger throughput is already at 80 per cent of pre-pandemic levels—mainland authorities see coordinated marketing as the next lever to hit the Ministry of Commerce’s 2026 target of USD 115 billion in inbound service-trade revenue.
For visitors who still need formal documentation—or simply want added peace of mind—VisaHQ can simplify the process. The company’s China portal (https://www.visahq.com/china/) provides real-time guidance on eligibility for the new visa-free rules, offers quick visa assessments, and handles end-to-end applications for tourists, business travellers and MICE groups alike, ensuring trips go ahead smoothly even as regulations evolve.
The briefing comes as Beijing extends several trial waivers to 31 December 2026 and adds markets such as Canada, the United Kingdom and Sweden to the 30-day visa-free list. Speakers emphasised that most short-term visits for tourism, business meetings, trade fairs and family reunions can now be completed with nothing more than a passport and a return or onward air ticket, provided travellers enter through one of 60 designated ports. To help overseas wholesalers convert the new flexibility into bookings, the organisers released 10 themed “One Trip, Multiple Stops” routes that link Hong Kong with neighbouring Greater Bay Area (GBA) cities and interior cultural hubs such as Xi’an and Chengdu. Sample packages connect Hong Kong’s aviation gateway with high-speed rail segments to Shenzhen for biotech park visits, then on to Guangzhou for Canton Fair sourcing before ending in Guilin for eco-retreats—all within a single electronic itinerary. From a corporate-mobility perspective, the initiative lowers compliance friction for multinational firms that use Hong Kong as a staging point for China travel. HR mobility teams were told that employees who qualify for visa-free entry can now piggy-back leisure days onto back-to-back meetings in multiple mainland cities without triggering extra visa applications or residence-permit requirements. Travel managers should update policy matrices to flag which passport-holders can shift from business (M) visas to visa-free entry and which ports support 24-hour consular services. Travel analysts forecast the policy briefing will accelerate the rebound of inbound MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) traffic. With Hong Kong serving as a fully reopened aviation hub—passenger throughput is already at 80 per cent of pre-pandemic levels—mainland authorities see coordinated marketing as the next lever to hit the Ministry of Commerce’s 2026 target of USD 115 billion in inbound service-trade revenue.
