BEIJING: Multiple cities and provinces across the country are ramping up efforts to boost tourism-related consumption during the summer season, as a wave of spending is evident in many places, particularly in inbound travel.
The tourism industry is on the rise, driven by improved services, better infrastructure and supportive policies, a Chinese expert said. With continued efforts from both central and local governments, tourism consumption is expected to become an increasingly important driver of overall consumer spending.
Megacity Shanghai announced on Wednesday that the “Shanghai Summer” International Consumption Season, a city-level campaign aimed primarily at boosting inbound tourism spending during the summer, is set to kick off on Friday. Authorities are launching a series of activities that combine commerce, travel, culture, sports and exhibitions aimed at providing excellent consumption experience for consumers and travelers from across the world.
In the first six months this year, Shanghai facilitated a total of 4.25 million inbound tourist trips in the first six months this year, signifying an increase of 38.5 percent year-on-year. Sales of tax-refundable goods grew by 85 percent year-on-year, with sales under the “instant tax refund” policy soaring by 28.1-fold, Zhu Min, director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, said at a press conference on Wednesday.
Shanghai is just one of the latest Chinese cities to promote summer tourism consumption.
Qingdao, a popular coastal tourist city of East China’s Shandong Province, launched a cultural and tourism consumption season this week, part of the province’s broader efforts to boost tourism spending, domestic news portal The Paper reported.
Over 4,000 cultural and tourism events will be held across Shandong this summer to boost consumption. More than 1,000 A-level scenic spots and over 500 star-rated hotels across the province are partnering with financial institutions and online travel platforms to offer various discounts and promotional deals, according to media reports.
East China’s Anhui Province recently held a provincial meeting on boosting the summer cultural and tourism market and advancing the development of all-for-one tourism as a pillar industry for 2025, according to a report published on the official website of the provincial government.
The meeting called for the full implementation of policies to stimulate cultural and tourism consumption, seizing summer opportunities to accelerate the development of tourism into a pillar industry, said the report.
Cities in China will allocate over 570 million yuan ($79.56 million) in subsidies to boost domestic consumption as part of efforts to kick off the summer consumption season, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Monday.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism will launch a nationwide campaign from July to August. During this period, regions across the country will introduce a variety of seasonal cultural and tourism products and activities, focusing on summer consumption trends.
Specific activities include coastal vacations, performances and exhibitions, market fairs, family-friendly entertainment and night-time events. More than 4,300 themed activities, totaling about 39,000 sessions, will be held.
“Since the start of summer, many provinces and cities across China have actively innovated and enriched consumption scenarios. Driven by tourists’ personalized and quality-oriented demands, these localities have been continuously improving tourism services,” Cong Yi, a professor at the Tianjin School of Administration, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
Cong said that diverse consumption supply will help spark spending potential and overall market vitality. “Consumption is a crucial engine for economic growth and a key driver in smoothing domestic circulation. Promoting strategic synergy between culture and tourism at the consumption level will make significant contributions to stimulating consumption and comprehensively expanding domestic demand,” he said. –The Daily Mail-Global Times news exchange item
