(Yicai) Nov. 5 -- China's exhibition area at the 2026 World Travel Market in London has set a new record high since the country joined the world’s most influential travel and tourism event.

China’s exhibition area at this year’s WTM is 487.5 square meters, up about 22 percent from last year’s edition. It features cultural and tourism departments and enterprises from 14 provincial-level regions, with 116 exhibitors, including many new faces such as Legoland Shanghai Resort, which is owned by UK investor Merlin Entertainments Group.

The 2026 WTM kicked off at Excel London, Europe’s largest fully integrated convention and exhibition center, on Nov. 3 and will run through today. This year’s event has attracted over 4,000 exhibitors from more than 180 countries and regions.

UK tourists are more willing to visit China after the visa-free policy was implemented. Beijing received nearly 100,000 tourists from the United Kingdom in the first seven months of the year, up over 53 percent from a year earlier, said Jonathan Heastie, head of tourism at the WTM’s organizer RX.

More and more travelers are seeking immersive experiences and hope to know local people and understand local culture, Heastie noted, adding that specialty cuisine, vibrant traditional customs, and the opportunity to get to know a place through locals are exactly what China offers.

The task of tourism practitioners is to help clients explore more possibilities in Chinese tourism, such as not being limited to one city, exploring multiple regions, and extending their stay, he added.

Many Chinese cities are not well known overseas, and many foreign tourists lack knowledge of Chinese travel destinations, David Haigh, chairman of Brand Finance, said at the opening ceremony of the WTM’s China exhibition area, about some challenges the Chinese tourism industry faces.

The Chinese ice and snow exhibition attracted a large crowd of visitors. Many UK people attending the WTM were curious and wanted to learn more. However, it will be hard for China to become a viable winter travel destination for UK tourists.

When it comes to ice and snow travel and sports, UK tourists first think of destinations in Europe or at most Canada, Nigel Hamilton, who runs a small travel agency in the UK, told Yicai, adding that only a few think of China. He believes that the most important thing for Chinese ice and snow tourism to open up the UK market is to do a good job in public communication and market education.

Visiting a country is the most powerful way to change people’s views, Haigh said. To get more people willing to travel to China, more public praise and positive experiences from those who have already visited the country are needed, he added.

Editor: Futura Costaglione