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

Nine departments jointly issue

On March 20, the Ministry of Commerce and eight other departments released the “Policy Measures to Promote Travel Service Exports and Expand Incoming Consumption” (hereinafter referred to as “Measures”). The Measures propose 16 policy initiatives in 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 over 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, entertainment, and other activities counts toward China’s travel service exports. According to statistics from the Ministry of Commerce, the export scale is expected to reach 393.98 billion yuan in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 49.5%, 1.6 times that of 2019. Therefore, the policy focuses on various inbound consumption scenarios such as shopping, business exhibitions, sports events, health consumption, and education and training, and proposes multiple support measures, which are also key areas of the document.

The head of the Service Trade Department explained 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 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 Entertainment 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, offering high-end health checkups, cosmetic surgery, rehabilitation, and nursing services for international patients. They also leverage the demonstration and leading 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 approved abroad but not yet registered in China within medical institutions in the zone, and permitting patients to leave the zone with reasonable amounts of imported medicines for personal use. The plan supports the pilot work of wholly foreign-owned hospitals by encouraging the introduction of internationally leading specialty hospitals in rehabilitation and high-end health checkup services.

Additionally, the Measures establish a comprehensive support system for inbound consumption. By building national tourism brands, strengthening global targeted marketing, and continuously improving visa policies, more international travelers will be encouraged to “want to come to China” and “be able to come to China.” In payment, tax refunds, communication, sightseeing, ticketing, and other aspects, a series of facilitation measures will be implemented, such as optimizing outbound tax refund services, enhancing payment convenience, simplifying inbound telecom services, researching the deployment and application of personal smart devices for inbound cultural and tourism consumption, encouraging multilingual versions of various life service apps, improving foreign language services at key sites, and increasing the convenience of ticket reservations for foreign tourists at popular scenic spots. These efforts aim to enhance the overall experience of international travelers in “Traveling in China” and “Shopping in China.”

The head of the Service Trade Department stated that inbound consumption involves multiple industries, links, and departments. The Measures clearly emphasize strengthening systematic planning, policy coordination, and departmental collaboration. Key points 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 local governments to provide infrastructure support based on actual needs. The goal is to actively create an internationally attractive consumer environment.