Nine departments jointly release the "Sixteen Measures to Expand Entry Consumption," focusing on various entry consumption scenarios such as tourism shopping, business exhibitions, sports events and performances, health consumption, and education and training.

Securities Times reporter Qin Yanling

On March 20, nine departments including the Ministry of Commerce released the “Policy Measures on Promoting the Export of Travel Services and Expanding Inbound Consumption” (hereinafter referred to as the “Measures”). From seven aspects, including expanding inbound tourism consumption, facilitating inbound business activities, invigorating inbound sports-event consumption, flourishing inbound cultural and entertainment consumption, expanding inbound health consumption, developing inbound education and training consumption, and improving safeguard measures, the document proposes 16 policy initiatives.

Travel services (including tourism, studying abroad, seeking medical treatment, etc.) are the largest sector of China’s service trade. The scale of imports and exports accounts for more than one quarter of the total value of service trade. Inbound consumption is an important component of service exports and also an important growth driver of service consumption. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics show that in 2025, there were 35.17 million inbound foreign visitors nationwide, up 30.5% from 2024.

A spokesperson from the Ministry of Commerce’s Service Trade Department said that the various types of consumption by inbound visitors in China—such as eating, staying, transportation, sightseeing, shopping, and entertainment—are counted toward China’s travel services exports. According to the Ministry of Commerce’s statistics, in 2025 the export scale was 393.98 billion yuan, up 49.5% year on year, and 1.6 times that of 2019. Therefore, this policy focuses on inbound consumption scenarios such as tourism and shopping, business conferences and exhibitions, sports viewing and performances, health consumption, education and training, and more. It proposes multiple support initiatives, which is also a key focus of the document.

The spokesperson from the Ministry of Commerce’s Service Trade Department introduced that the “Measures” both roll out a series of initiatives from the perspective of “increasing the supply of high-quality services,” such as enriching the supply of inbound tourism products, improving the service quality and level of international exhibitions, supporting the introduction of international sports events, optimizing the approval and management of commercial performances involving foreign parties, encouraging the development of Chinese-language education, etc., thereby stimulating new demand for service consumption. It also proposes a set of new initiatives from the perspective of “integrating consumption resources to promote integrated development,” such as launching “events + tourism” packages, expanding integrated consumption scenarios of “performing arts + culture and tourism,” supporting the development of “international performing arts consumption zones,” creating international medical tourism brands, and more, to better meet the needs of diversified consumption.

For example, the “Measures” propose that in some areas with conditions, efforts will be made to explore the construction of international medical tourism clusters. These clusters would provide services such as high-end health checkups, cosmetic surgery and aesthetic medicine, and rehabilitation nursing for international patients. Leveraging the demonstration and leading role of the Hainan Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone, it allows clinical urgently needed drugs for which overseas listed products exist but China has not yet approved products of the same variety for registration (excluding vaccines), as well as medical devices, to be used by medical institutions within the zone. It also allows patients of medical institutions within the zone to take imported pharmaceuticals in a reasonable amount for personal use and leave the pilot zone to use them. The plans to expand the opening-up pilot for wholly foreign-owned hospitals will be implemented; in pilot provinces and cities, support will be provided for introducing internationally leading specialist hospitals for rehabilitation, high-end health checkups, and similar services.

At the same time, the “Measures” also build a promotion system across the full chain of inbound consumption. By creating national tourism brands, strengthening global precision marketing, and continuously improving visa policies, more international travelers can “want to come to China” and “be able to come to China.” In addition, in each stage such as payments, tax refunds, telecommunications, sightseeing, and ticketing, a series of facilitation measures will also be implemented—such as optimizing departure tax-refund services, improving payment convenience, facilitating the handling of inbound telecommunications business, researching and advancing the allocation and application of personal intelligent devices for inbound culture and tourism consumption, encouraging various life-service software to provide multilingual versions, raising the level of foreign-language services in key venues, and improving the convenience of booking tickets for foreign visitors in popular scenic spots—so that international travelers enhance their consumption experience of “traveling in China” and “shopping in China.”

The spokesperson from the Ministry of Commerce’s Service Trade Department said that inbound consumption work involves multiple industries, multiple links, and multiple relevant departments. The “Measures” clarify the need to strengthen overall planning, reinforce policy coordination, and enhance the combined efforts of departments. It particularly proposes further optimizing statistics on the development of inbound travel, promoting data interconnectivity among regions, strengthening data monitoring and feedback, improving the convenience of digital services for inbound personnel, encouraging localities to provide element-based support for inbound consumption infrastructure based on actual conditions, and more—actively creating an international consumption environment with global appeal.

(Editor: Wang Zhiqiang HF013)

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