9 Departments Jointly Promote Travel Services Exports; Inbound Consumption Receives Major Favorable Policies

Recently, to promote the export of travel services and expand inbound consumption, the Ministry of Commerce and eight other departments issued the “Policy Measures to Promote the Expansion of Travel Service Exports and Inbound Consumption” (hereinafter referred to as the “Policy Measures”). The measures propose 16 specific policies across seven areas: expanding inbound tourism consumption, facilitating inbound business activities, activating inbound sports event consumption, prospering inbound entertainment consumption, expanding inbound health consumption, developing inbound education and training consumption, and improving support measures. Experts interviewed believe that targeted policy implementation is expected to further promote service exports, stimulate the inbound consumption market, and create new opportunities for service consumption.

Regarding the background of the policy’s issuance, a person in charge of the Service Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce stated that travel services—including tourism, studying abroad, medical treatment, and others—are China’s largest sector in service trade, accounting for over a quarter of total service trade import and export volume. However, it is also the area with the largest service trade deficit. Inbound consumption is an important part of service exports and a key growth point for service consumption. In recent years, China has continuously promoted visa facilitation, international payment, service standardization, and other measures, introduced outbound tax refund policies, and optimized the international consumption environment, significantly increasing the attractiveness of inbound consumption.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, by 2025, the number of inbound foreign tourists is expected to reach 35.17 million, a 30.5% increase over 2024. Inbound tourists’ spending on food, accommodation, transportation, sightseeing, shopping, and entertainment in China is included in the country’s travel service exports. According to the Ministry of Commerce, the export scale is projected to reach 393.98 billion yuan in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 49.5%, 1.6 times that of 2019.

Zheng Wei, deputy researcher at the China Service Outsourcing Research Center, told the “Economic Information Daily” that although China’s travel service exports are currently growing rapidly, the country still faces a service trade deficit, with travel services showing a particularly significant deficit. The core goal of the new policies is to further expand travel service exports and attract more overseas tourists to China, thereby reducing the service trade deficit and promoting a healthy, balanced development of China’s service trade.

Zheng Wei further analyzed that currently, countries are actively expanding inbound tourism and competing for international tourists. China’s market is on the rise and has become a popular choice for international visitors. “It is very timely for China to introduce these policies, which will help seize the opportunities presented by the global market recovery,” he said.

The policy covers all aspects of inbound scenarios, enriching the supply of quality services. The “Policy Measures” focus on different inbound purposes and consumption needs, targeting tourism shopping, business exhibitions, sports and entertainment events, health consumption, and education and training. It proposes measures to increase high-quality service supply and promote integrated development by launching “sports + tourism” packages, expanding entertainment + cultural tourism integrated consumption scenarios, supporting the creation of “International Entertainment Consumption Zones,” and building international medical tourism brands, among others, to better meet diverse consumer demands.

At the same time, the policies emphasize building a comprehensive chain promotion system and removing bottlenecks in inbound consumption. The measures include creating national tourism brands, strengthening global targeted marketing, continuously improving visa policies, and making it easier for more international travelers to “want to come to China” and “be able to come to China.” They also focus on streamlining the entire process of inbound consumption—covering payment, tax refunds, telecommunications, sightseeing, and ticketing—by implementing a series of facilitation measures to enhance the consumer experience of “traveling in China” and “shopping in China.”

Zheng Wei explained that the core of these measures is to make it easier for tourists to realize “Travel in China” and “Shop in China.” On one hand, the policies focus on exploring and integrating China’s rich cultural and historical resources, traditional Chinese medicine, natural scenery, and other distinctive elements to attract overseas tourists. By launching integrated formats such as “sports +,” “entertainment +,” and creating international medical tourism brands, they aim to enrich high-quality, diverse travel consumption scenarios and enhance the appeal of “Travel in China” from the supply side. On the other hand, the policies aim to smooth out bottlenecks in the entire inbound consumption process, including visa facilitation, currency exchange, telecommunications, and tax refunds. By systematically improving convenience in each link, they eliminate barriers in entry, consumption, payment, and communication, making the “Shop in China” experience smoother.

Dai Bin, President of the China Tourism Research Institute, previously told reporters that the development trend of inbound tourism is moving from “Travel in China” to “Shop in China” and then to experiencing the beauty of Chinese life comprehensively. The implementation of duty-free, tax refund policies, and payment facilitation has greatly promoted the branding of “Shopping in China.”

It is worth noting that the “Policy Measures” clearly state the need to strengthen inter-departmental coordination and focus on optimizing statistics on inbound travel development, promoting data sharing across regions, enhancing data monitoring and feedback, improving digital services for inbound personnel, and encouraging localities to provide necessary infrastructure for inbound consumption based on actual conditions, actively creating an internationally attractive consumer environment.

Zheng Wei said that inbound consumption involves multiple fields such as entry-exit management, finance, culture and tourism, and telecommunications. Multi-departmental cooperation is conducive to systematically improving facilitation levels and ensuring the effective implementation of policies. In the future, these policies are expected to boost China’s service exports, reduce service trade deficits, and inject new momentum into cultivating the “Chinese Service” brand.

(Article source: Economic Information Daily)