Haitang Bay in Sanya expands its ambitions: China’s tropical coast is no longer just a holiday destination, but also a new hub of health tourism
When people talk about the southern Chinese province of Hainan, the first associations are usually sun, sea, luxury resorts, and duty-free shopping. But in the past few years, Haitang Bay in the city of Sanya has increasingly been positioning itself as a destination for a different type of travel as well: one in which leisure is combined with health services, recovery, prevention, and traditional Chinese medicine. It is precisely at this intersection of tourism and medicine that Chinese authorities and local stakeholders are now building a new international story, seeking to attract guests from a much wider circle of countries than was previously the case, when Russian visitors made up one of the most visible segments of the foreign market. At the present moment, Haitang Bay is no longer presented only as a warm alternative to winter destinations, but as a place where luxury infrastructure, a mild climate, rehabilitation programs, and traditional therapeutic approaches are offered as a unified experience.
From a prestigious coastline to a more complex tourism product
Haitang Bay is located in Haitang District in Sanya, in southern China, and in recent years it has recorded strong institutional and market development. According to data from the Sanya city administration, it is a zone that obtained provincial tourist resort status in 2022, and the planned development area covers 11.83 square kilometers. Local tourism policy, meanwhile, is not based only on building hotels and retail facilities, but on the idea of creating a comprehensive international tourism center. That direction is also confirmed by the numbers: official data say that the resort in Haitang Bay alone received 9.22 million visitors in 2024 and generated revenue of 19.5 billion yuan, which clearly shows that it is one of the most important drivers of tourism in that part of Hainan. In practice, this means that the destination no longer relies on a narrow visitor profile, but on a wide range of offerings that include leisure, recreation, shopping, wellness, and increasingly visible medical facilities.
On the ground, that shift is already visible. Haitang Bay is known for a series of luxury international hotels, large beach complexes, and one of the most recognizable retail symbols of contemporary Hainan, the large duty-free center in Sanya, which official and tourism materials highlight as one of the largest individual stores of its kind in Asia. But alongside that commercial dimension, the promotional materials of tourism and city institutions increasingly emphasize wellness, recovery, revitalization, and a healthy lifestyle. In other words, the destination is trying to move away from a model in which the guest comes only for the beach and shopping and to reposition itself as a place where the feeling of physical renewal, mental relief, and health care in a warm climatic environment is also being sold.
Why health tourism has become an important part of the story
In recent years, China has been systematically trying to develop health tourism as a separate export and development product, and Hainan has been given a special place in that strategy. This is supported both by state opening-up policies and by the fact that the island has a climate suitable for year-round stays, especially for guests seeking a warmer environment during winter or in periods of recovery. Within that framework, Sanya, as the best-known tourist city in Hainan, naturally imposes itself as the showcase of that model. This is not only about the classic wellness offered by hotels, but about an effort to include medical services, rehabilitation, and traditional Chinese medicine in the broader tourism offer available to international guests as well.
Official information from the Hainan Free Trade Port system and local health institutions shows that Sanya has long been presented as a place for the development of rehabilitation tourism based on traditional Chinese medicine. In its publicly available descriptions, the Sanya Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital specifically emphasizes rehabilitation with Chinese medicine and highly customized health services for foreign guests. Such positioning is not insignificant because it shows that the target is not exclusively the domestic market, but also guests from abroad seeking a combination of treatment, recovery, and a tourist stay. In such a model, the climate, sea air, accommodation infrastructure, and therapeutic programs become part of the same product.
This is especially important at a time when health tourism is expanding globally beyond traditional centers. Travelers today are not necessarily looking only for a highly specialized procedure at a lower price, but increasingly also for rehabilitation programs, pain management, prevention, longevity, mental rest, or an integrative approach to health. It is precisely here that Sanya and Haitang Bay are trying to find their place: not as a competitor to every hospital system, but as a destination offering a warm climate, a longer stay, and a therapeutic routine in a more relaxed setting than that associated with a classic medical journey.
Traditional Chinese medicine as differentiation in the global market
One of the key elements on which China is building the recognizability of Hainan and Sanya is traditional Chinese medicine. In international promotion, this includes acupuncture, moxibustion, massages, phytotherapeutic approaches, rehabilitation programs, and broader concepts of body balance and recovery. For some foreign guests, that very component is the reason why they perceive Sanya differently from other tropical destinations. While many sunny destinations offer spa treatments, massages, and classic wellness packages, Sanya seeks to offer a deeper health narrative, namely the idea that a stay by the sea can be connected with a targeted therapeutic or recovery plan.
Such a narrative already has a market effect. Official and semi-official Chinese sources during 2025 and early 2026 repeatedly highlighted growth in the number of foreign patients and medical tourists in Hainan, including Sanya. Publicly released information from Hainan Free Trade Port states that in the Boao Lecheng medical zone, which is a key laboratory of Chinese medical tourism, more than 9,300 overseas patients from 14 countries and regions were treated during 2025. Although Boao Lecheng is not located in Haitang Bay itself, but in another part of Hainan, that zone is important for understanding the broader context: Hainan is not developing chaotically, but as a province in which medical tourism is being built through a system, regulatory specificities, and international promotion. Haitang Bay and Sanya in that picture serve as an attractive, tourism-stronger gateway into the island’s broader health-tourism ecosystem.
For the guests themselves, this means that the destination offers not just one service, but several in a chain: arrival without major administrative barriers, a stay in a high-category tourist zone, the possibility of preventive or rehabilitation programs, and, if necessary, connection with more developed medical institutions in Hainan. Tourism materials from Sanya are already promoting locations such as wellness and TCM facilities in Haitang Bay itself, which further confirms that the destination wants to combine the experience of leisure and health enhancement, rather than treat them as two separate industries.
Visa regime and accessibility as an important incentive for arrivals
One of the key reasons why China believes it can expand Hainan’s international reach is easier entry for foreign nationals. China’s National Immigration Administration and the official channels of Hainan Free Trade Port state that Hainan has a special 30-day visa-free policy for citizens of 59 countries, while in parallel China’s general policy of unilateral or bilateral visa-free entry is being expanded to an increasing number of states. For Croatian citizens, the situation has also been simplified: according to information from the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Republic of Croatia, holders of ordinary Croatian passports may enter the People’s Republic of China without a visa until December 31, 2026, for stays of up to 30 days for purposes such as tourism, business trips, family visits, and transit.
For the tourism sector, this is not just a technical detail, but a serious market lever. In the competition among destinations, especially on medium- and long-haul routes, administrative simplicity often determines whether a traveler will choose a particular place. If this is combined with the growth of international air connections, a warm climate throughout the year, and the image of a relatively safe resort environment, Haitang Bay gains a much broader pool of potential guests than before. This includes not only traditional outbound markets, but also travelers from Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East for whom entry into China is now simpler than it was a few years ago.
What the figures show about international guests
Official data from Sanya confirm that interest from foreign guests is growing. The city authorities announced that in the first five months of 2025, Sanya recorded 395,900 international overnight guests, which is an increase of 47.12 percent compared with the same period of the previous year. Additional official statements say that during the whole of 2025 the city had more than 1.06 million international overnight guests, along with strong growth in spending and the expansion of air routes. Those numbers are important because they suggest that international demand is not growing only in one niche, but at the level of the entire city, and Haitang Bay, as one of the strongest tourism engines, profits directly from that.
At the same time, the Russian market remains extremely important. Chinese and international sources stated during 2025 that Russian guests accounted for more than 40 percent of international arrivals in Sanya in certain periods, and strong growth in their numbers was also recorded in 2025. This explains why Russian audiences are still often mentioned in promotion: it is a market that knows Hainan well, seeks winter sun, and shows interest in health programs as well, especially those related to chronic pain, rehabilitation, and traditional Chinese medicine. But that is precisely why the current shift toward guests “outside Russia” is important. It does not mean rejecting the existing market, but reducing dependence on one dominant segment and attempting to create a broader, more resilient international portfolio of arrivals.
Warm climate, longer stays, and the logic of recovery
Why would someone choose Haitang Bay or Sanya specifically for recovery or a preventive health program? The answer lies in a combination of several factors. The first is the climate: a warm and humid tropical environment is attractive to guests from colder regions, especially in winter. The second is infrastructure: from the airport and high-category hotels to organized resort zones and services tailored to foreign guests. The third is the very logic of the stay: health tourism often requires more days or weeks, and that means the destination must offer both a medical or wellness component and conditions for comfortable everyday life. It is precisely here that Sanya is trying to establish itself as a place where therapy is not separate from leisure, but integrated into it.
Such an approach is especially attractive to those who do not necessarily travel because of an acute health problem, but because of recovery after a demanding period, musculoskeletal problems, stress, fatigue, or the need for a preventive reset. In the promotion of health tourism, this is exactly why formulations that combine “healing”, “wellness”, “recovery”, and “integrated care” are common. In other words, what is being sold is a model in which travel is not an escape from everyday life only in the tourism sense, but also a structured investment in one’s own health. Haitang Bay, because of its luxury infrastructure and image of a calmer, more orderly resort zone, has a good starting position for such positioning.
Where marketing ends and real challenges begin
Despite strong promotion, it is important to keep a sense of proportion. Health tourism is an area in which marketing messages often move faster than actual systemic capacities. For international guests, issues of quality, language, medical documentation, insurance, cost transparency, and continuity of care after returning home are crucial. That is why the real success of Haitang Bay and Sanya will depend not only on images of beaches and five-star hotels, but on how reliably they will be able to respond to the needs of foreign guests who expect clear medical procedures, professional communication, and well-organized logistics.
Official information published so far suggests that Chinese institutions are aware of this. In Sanya, the strengthening of multilingual services is mentioned, and health institutions that work with foreign guests emphasize international cooperation and adaptation of services. But for a more serious breakthrough toward markets outside Russia and neighboring Asian countries, it will also matter how the destination communicates with Europeans, the Middle East, and other groups of travelers who have different expectations when it comes to medical standards, privacy, and service. In other words, the next phase of development will not be only a matter of infrastructure, but also of trust.
Why Haitang Bay is becoming a test of China’s broader strategy
What is happening in Haitang Bay goes beyond local tourism development. In a broader sense, it is a test of China’s strategy according to which Hainan should become a more open international island, a space of high spending, tourism, services, and special development regimes. Health tourism has a dual function in this. On the one hand, it brings guests with greater purchasing power who do not come only for a short weekend, but often stay longer and spend more. On the other hand, such a model helps China communicate its own specific advantages to the outside world, among which traditional Chinese medicine stands out as a cultural and health export product.
Within that framework, Haitang Bay has an almost ideal symbolic role. It is a place that already has an internationally recognizable tourism identity, a strong accommodation base, and an attractive coastline, so it is easier to build a story there about a “broader horizon” than in locations that are only just seeking market visibility. When such a destination is combined with visa-free or eased entry, a rising number of international routes, and increasingly frequent highlighting of health facilities, the result is a model that the Chinese authorities clearly want to push more strongly than before. For a reader from Europe or Croatia, this means that Sanya and Haitang Bay are no longer just an exotic footnote of Chinese tourism, but an increasingly serious competitor in the segment of long-haul travel that combines leisure, recovery, and a new type of wellness experience.
Sources:- The People's Government of Sanya City – official data on the development of Haitang Bay, resort status, and visitor numbers (link)- Sanya Tourism Board – official description of Haitang Bay as a key luxury and tourism zone of Sanya (link)- The People's Government of Sanya City – official data on the growth of international arrivals in Sanya during 2025 (link)- The People's Government of Sanya City – data on international guests, spending, and the expansion of air connections during 2025 (link)- National Immigration Administration of China – explanation of regional visa-free policies, including 30-day entry to Hainan (link)- Hainan Free Trade Port – guide to the 59-country visa-free policy for Hainan (link)- Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Republic of Croatia – current visa regime for Croatian citizens when entering China (link)- Hainan Free Trade Port – official description of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital in Sanya and its focus on rehabilitation tourism (link)- Hainan Free Trade Port – official description of the Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Zone (link)- Hainan Free Trade Port – data on the number of overseas patients in the Boao Lecheng zone during 2025 (link)- Xinhua / official Chinese report – data on the growth in the number of Russian tourists in Sanya and their share among international guests (link)
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