Recently, with Putin's visit to China, the strategic mutual trust between China and Russia has been further solidified.

As an important extension of this wave of diplomatic dividends, the Chinese side officially announced that it will extend the visa-free policy for Russia until December 31, 2027. This is just a ripple in the tide of China's inbound tourism opening up.

According to data from the National Immigration Administration, China has implemented unilateral visa-free policies for 50 countries worldwide. From Southeast Asia to Europe, from Central Asia to Africa, China's "visa-free circle" is expanding. As "China Travel" becomes a trending topic on global social media, a trillion-level inbound tourism market is being thoroughly activated.

In this feast, SSAW Hotels & Resorts (301073.SZ) is quietly standing in the most advantageous position with its unique "mid-to-high-end selected service" positioning.

Inbound tourism is a strong growth track

Currently, many people's understanding of inbound tourism is still at the level of "a few foreigners coming to play," but the data does not lie.

In 2024, the total number of inbound tourists to China has strongly rebounded, with over 26 million inbound foreigners throughout the year, nearly doubling year-on-year; entering 2025, driven by the continued expansion of visa-free policies, this number is accelerating upward. The recent news of extending the visa-free policy between China and Russia until the end of 2027 means that in the next year and a half, tourists from Russia will experience a wave of highly certain growth.

How much do Russians love to travel? According to data from the World Tourism Organization, the annual number of outbound tourists from Russia exceeds 45 million, making it one of the top five outbound tourist source countries in the world. China has always been their most favored destination—Beijing's Forbidden City, Xi'an's Terracotta Army, Shanghai's Bund, Chengdu's hot pot... each is a "check-in hotspot" on their social media.

More critically, the consumption characteristics of inbound tourists are significantly different from those of domestic tourists. They stay longer, have stronger spending power, and have higher demands for accommodation quality. This means that inbound tourists are not here to "make up the numbers"; they are here to "spend money," and they are spending high-quality money.

For the hotel industry, inbound tourism brings not only an increase in occupancy rates but also a simultaneous rise in ADR (Average Daily Rate) and RevPAR (Revenue Per Available Room). This is a healthier and more sustainable growth model than the "price-for-volume" approach in the domestic tourism market.

Precise positioning to leverage global membership resources

SSAW Hotels & Resorts is precisely the player with the strongest "precise positioning" capability in this track.

It is not a traditional "economy chain," nor is it a "business hotel" with hundreds of rooms; SSAW Hotels & Resorts is following a highly differentiated route—mid-to-high-end selected service hotels. It owns multiple brands such as "SSAW Hotels," "SSAW Resort Hotels," and "Jinglan Hotels," covering a diverse range of scenarios from urban boutique to leisure resorts This positioning highly aligns with the needs of inbound tourists.

Firstly, inbound tourists prefer accommodation experiences that have a "cultural feel." Unlike domestic business travelers who are pragmatic and just need "a bed," inbound tourists come to China specifically to "experience China." The brands under SSAW Hotels & Resorts are designed with "Eastern aesthetics + local culture" as core principles, which are far more attractive to inbound tourists than standardized business hotels.

Secondly, SSAW's urban layout precisely covers the core routes of inbound tourism. Its stores are mainly located in popular cities and regions for inbound tourism such as the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Chengdu-Chongqing, and Xi'an. Cities like Shanghai, Hangzhou, Chengdu, and Xi'an are "must-visit" cities for foreign tourists coming to China. SSAW's presence in these cities allows it to quickly capture the spillover effect of inbound tourist traffic.

Moreover, the mid-to-high-end positioning means stronger pricing power and resilience against economic cycles. In the hotel industry, budget hotels fear "price wars," while high-end hotels dread "cyclical fluctuations." Mid-to-high-end boutique hotels have enough brand premium to support room rates and are less likely to have their budgets cut immediately due to economic downturns.

Crucially, SSAW Hotels & Resorts holds a "special card for inbound tourism." In May 2025, SSAW Hotels Group officially signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Preferred Hotels & Resorts, establishing an exclusive franchise and global distribution cooperation model in mainland China. The most important aspect of this cooperation is that SSAW's hotels can access the global distribution system of Preferred Hotels, directly connecting to its over 70 million global member resources.

This will greatly facilitate users of Preferred Hotels and overseas guests in booking rooms within China, while further increasing SSAW Group's overseas distribution channels. In the investor research conducted in May, SSAW clearly stated that its multi-brand hotels would connect to the Preferred Hotels central reservation system, continuously attracting global member clientele, and normalizing order inflow. It has also completed full direct connections with mainstream overseas OTA platforms, significantly increasing the proportion of international guests in major port cities, effectively countering the pressure of domestic market competition.

The Certainty of SSAW Hotels' Growth Expectations

With these advantages in hand, combined with the "incremental" addition of inbound tourism, the growth expectations for SSAW Hotels will become clearer.

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, the total number of inbound tourists to China in 2025 is projected to be 154.5 million, including 35 million foreigners and 119 million compatriots from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan; it is predicted that the number of inbound tourists will grow to approximately 163 million in 2026. This will become an important support for the growth of SSAW Hotels.

Relying on the advantages of "core port city layout + Preferred Hotels global distribution channels + high room rates abroad," the proportion of inbound guests at SSAW Hotels will continue to rise, becoming the company's most certain growth engine.

In other words, SSAW Hotels is transforming from a "mid-to-high-end hotel brand in the Chinese region" into a "core beneficiary of inbound tourism with access to 70 million global members." More importantly, this growth is not a "one-off wave," but a long-term trend supported by policies. The list of countries with visa-free access is still expanding, indicating that this is not a short-term stimulus, but a structural growth trend lasting several years For the capital market, what is most valuable has never been "high growth," but rather "predictable high growth." When 163 million inbound visitors flood into China, and when foreign tourists are searching for "Chinese hotels" on the Choice app, SSAW Hotels & Resorts has already positioned itself in the most precise spot.

Growth is not just an expectation; it is a reality that is happening