Not Just Tourism! 16 New Measures to Expand Inbound Consumer Spending Released

On March 20, the Ministry of Commerce and eight other departments issued the “Policy Measures to Promote Travel Service Exports and Expand inbound Consumption” (hereinafter referred to as “Measures”), proposing 16 policy initiatives across seven areas: expanding inbound tourism consumption, facilitating inbound business activities, activating inbound sports event consumption, prospering inbound cultural and entertainment consumption, expanding inbound health consumption, developing inbound education and training consumption, and improving support measures.

Travel services (including tourism, studying abroad, medical treatment, etc.) are China’s largest sector in service trade, accounting for more than a quarter of total service trade imports and exports. Inbound consumption is an important part of service exports and a key growth point for service consumption. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, by 2025, the number of inbound foreign tourists will reach 35.17 million, a 30.5% increase over 2024.

The head of the Service Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce pointed out that inbound tourists’ spending on food, accommodation, transportation, sightseeing, shopping, and entertainment in China is included in the country’s travel service exports. According to statistics from the Ministry of Commerce, the export scale will reach 393.98 billion yuan in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 49.5%, 1.6 times that of 2019. Therefore, this policy focuses on various inbound consumption scenarios such as travel shopping, business exhibitions, sports events, health consumption, and education and training, proposing multiple support measures, which are also key areas of the document.

The head of the Service Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce introduced that the “Measures” introduce a series of initiatives from the perspective of “increasing high-quality service supply,” such as enriching inbound tourism products, improving international exhibition services and standards, supporting the introduction of international sports events, optimizing approval management for foreign-related commercial performances, and encouraging the development of Chinese language education to stimulate new service consumption demands. It also proposes a batch of new measures from the perspective of “integrating consumption resources and promoting integrated development,” such as launching “sports + tourism” packages, expanding entertainment + cultural tourism integrated consumption scenarios, supporting the creation of “International Performing Arts Consumption Zones,” and building international medical tourism brands to better meet diverse consumer needs.

For example, the “Measures” propose exploring the construction of international medical tourism clusters in certain qualified regions, providing high-end medical examinations, plastic surgery, rehabilitation, and nursing services for international patients; leveraging the demonstration role of the Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone in Hainan, allowing the use of clinically urgently needed drugs (excluding vaccines) and medical devices that are approved overseas but not yet registered in China within medical institutions in the zone; permitting patients to leave the zone with reasonable amounts of imported medicines for personal use; implementing the pilot plan to expand the opening of wholly foreign-owned hospitals, supporting the introduction of internationally leading specialty hospitals such as rehabilitation and high-end medical examinations in pilot provinces and cities.

Meanwhile, the “Measures” also establish a comprehensive promotion system for inbound consumption. By creating national tourism brands, strengthening global targeted marketing, and continuously improving visa policies, more international travelers will “want to come to China” and “be able to come to China.” In payment, tax refunds, communications, sightseeing, ticketing, and other links, a series of facilitation measures will be implemented, such as optimizing outbound tax refund services, enhancing payment convenience, facilitating inbound telecommunications services, researching and promoting the use of personal smart devices for inbound cultural and tourism consumption, encouraging various lifestyle apps to offer multilingual versions, improving foreign language services at key sites, and increasing the convenience of ticket reservations at popular scenic spots, thereby enhancing the consumer experience of “traveling and shopping in China” for international visitors.

The head of the Service Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce stated that inbound consumption involves multiple industries, links, and relevant departments. The “Measures” clearly emphasize strengthening systematic planning, policy coordination, and departmental collaboration. Key proposals include further optimizing statistics on inbound travel development, promoting inter-regional data sharing, strengthening data monitoring and feedback, improving digital services for inbound personnel, and encouraging localities to provide infrastructure support for inbound consumption based on actual conditions, actively creating an internationally attractive consumer environment.