Xinjiang seen attracting steady stream of tourists

Efforts by the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region to build itself into a global tourist destination have borne fruit, evidenced by a steady growth in its inbound tourism market.

From January to October 2025, the region received over 2.12 million inbound visitors, a year-on-year increase of 6.06 percent, generating international tourism revenue of $13.48 billion, up 6.55 percent year-on-year, according to the regional culture and tourism department.

The growing international appeal is bolstered by continuous improvements in regional infrastructure and a booming domestic market. The Altay-Hemu highway, which opened last summer, has halved the total travel time from six to three hours.

During the 2025 National Day holiday, sales of chartered car tours along the Northern Xinjiang loop surged by 88 percent year-on-year on the travel portal Ctrip. Meanwhile, the popular Dushanzi-Kuqa highway drove an average 40 percent increase in bookings for scenic spots along its route.

Serving as a vital catalyst for such robust industry growth and cross-border partnerships, the seventh Xinjiang Spring Tourism Expo was held last month at the Xinjiang International Convention and Exhibition Center in Urumqi. The event built an international platform integrating exhibition, trading, cooperation, and experience sharing through comprehensive activities ranging from policy releases to investment signings.

Hosted by the regional culture and tourism department and exclusively title-sponsored by the Dawakun Desert Tourist Scenic Area in Kashgar prefecture, the expo featured a strong lineup covering all 14 prefectures and cities in Xinjiang. It attracted more than 2,000 enterprises from over 20 provinces and municipalities. Highlighting its international focus, over 50 enterprises from countries including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Australia participated, building an important bridge for local cultural and tourism resources to reach the global market and further deepening government-enterprise synergy.

During the expo, multiple high-level forums and exchange meetings focused on industry frontiers. Experts and scholars, including Ge Lei, secretary-general of the China Tourism Association, and Dai Xuefeng, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, provided guidance on topics such as tourism trends during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30) and the strategic transformation of Xinjiang's tourism.

Concurrently, a special job fair for the cultural and tourism sector attracted over 100 enterprises offering more than 1,000 positions, achieving precise matching of talent supply and demand through on-site docking for university graduates.

At the exhibition, the Dawakun scenic area reached cooperation agreements for mutual tourist exchanges with a hundred travel agencies. Cultural and tourism equipment and technology enterprises from across the country made a concentrated appearance, with innovative products from companies like Shandong Jekeen Intelligent Manufacturing Technology Co Ltd drawing significant attention.

Zhang Xiaoyu, vice-president and secretary-general of the autonomous region's tourism association, said the successful hosting of such events further deepens internal and external cooperation, accelerating Xinjiang's transformation from a "tourism corridor" to a "tourist destination".

In the future, Xinjiang will continue to deepen cultural and tourism integration, optimize the supply of tourism products, and strive to build a highly popular international tourist destination, Zhang said.