China’s Xinjiang plans to open up to more tourists – including foreigners

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By Leopold Chen

Published May 27, 2025

China’s Xinjiang – an ethnically diverse region that still faces Western sanctions over a slew of human-rights issues – plans to open up to more foreign visitors, as the local government strives to boost tourism and diversify the regional economy.

The Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, which stretches over a vast tract of land in western China, has become a hugely popular destination among domestic tourists in recent years, receiving a record 302 million visits last year.

Now, local officials have published an action plan to further grow the region’s culture and tourism sector, with a target of raising the industry’s annual revenue to at least 1 trillion yuan (US$138 billion) and receiving at least 400 million visits per year by 2030, according to the document published on Sunday.

The plan will involve opening up the region to more foreign tourists, with the document including references to strengthening the development of cross-border tourism and expanding trade in cultural goods and services.

Xinjiang – which is famous in China for its stunning natural scenery and diverse mix of ethnic groups – is not currently fully open to foreign nationals.

While international visitors can generally enter the region freely, they normally need special permits to visit some tourist attractions, such as the huge Bayinbuluke grassland, according to China-based travel agencies that organise trips for foreigners.

But cross-border tourism to Xinjiang is already growing rapidly, with more than 5 million visitors entering the region from outside mainland China last year, an increase of 46 per cent year on year.

International travellers spent nearly US$4.5 billion in Xinjiang last year, nearly three times as much as in 2023. Overall, the region generated 360 billion yuan from tourism last year, a record total, according to official figures.

For Xinjiang, a tourism boom would allow the region to diversify its economy, making it more resilient in the face of Western sanctions, said James Downes, an assistant professor in politics and public administration at Hong Kong Metropolitan University.

“Tourism can reduce reliance on traditional industries, such as agriculture and energy, and provide growth in services,” he said.

Xinjiang is a major agricultural hub in China, producing more than 90 per cent of the country’s cotton and 80 per cent of its tomatoes, and it also plays an important role in the global supply chain for both products.

But the region has faced a growing wave of Western sanctions since 2020 related to alleged human rights abuses in the region. China has repeatedly denied the claims.

In late 2021, the United States Congress passed the Uygur Forced Labour Prevention Act, which prohibits imports of Xinjiang products alleged to have been made with forced labour. A similar ban was imposed by the European Union in April 2024.

Yet, data shows that Xinjiang’s exports have remained resilient in spite of the sanctions.

Xinjiang exported more than US$20.5 billion of goods during the first four months of the year, up 23.9 per cent compared with the same period last year, according to Urumqi customs. The US was the third-largest importer of those goods, with purchases rising by 153.7 per cent year on year to US1.08 billion.

Subramania Bhatt, founder and CEO of marketing and tech firm China Trading Desk, said that Xinjiang’s tourism sector had rebounded strongly since the pandemic due to a range of factors, including improved infrastructure and social stability.

The region had the potential to transform from a niche destination to a mainstream one for inbound tourism in China, if it takes further steps to open up, Bhatt added.

Expanding visa-free access, offering more health insurance options, and providing more multilingual guides were a few of the measures the authorities should take to attract more overseas tourists, he suggested.

“If these measures are adopted, inbound tourism could grow substantially – our projections suggest 8 million foreign visits by next year, and potentially 12 to 14 million within the next three to four years,” Bhatt said.