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 issued the “Policy Measures on Promoting the Export of Travel Services and Expanding Inbound Consumption” (hereinafter referred to as the “Measures”), proposing 16 policy initiatives across seven areas, including expanding consumption by inbound tourism, facilitating inbound business activities, invigorating consumption related to inbound events and competitions, boosting inbound culture and entertainment consumption, expanding inbound health consumption, developing inbound education and training consumption, and improving supporting measures.

Travel services (including tourism, studying abroad, medical care, etc.) are the largest area of China’s services trade, accounting for more than one-quarter of the total services trade value in terms of import and export scale. Inbound consumption is an important component of services exports and also a key growth driver of services consumption. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics show that in 2025, there were 35.17 million inbound foreign tourist arrivals nationwide, up 30.5% year over year from 2024.

A person in charge from the Department of Service Trade of the Ministry of Commerce noted that inbound visitors’ consumption in China—such as eating, lodging, transportation, sightseeing, shopping, and entertainment—counts toward China’s travel services exports. According to the Ministry of Commerce’s statistics, in 2025 the export scale was RMB 393.98 billion, up 49.5%, which is 1.6 times that of 2019. Therefore, this policy focuses on various inbound consumption scenarios such as tourism shopping, business conventions and exhibitions, viewing and attending events, health consumption, education and training, and proposes multiple support measures—these are also the key areas the document emphasizes.

The person in charge from the Department of Service Trade of the Ministry of Commerce said that the “Measures” introduce a series of initiatives from the perspective of “increasing the supply of high-quality services,” such as enriching the supply of inbound tour products, improving the services and standards of international exhibitions and fairs, supporting the introduction of international events, optimizing the examination and approval and management of business performances involving foreign parties, and encouraging the development of Chinese-language education, to stimulate new demand for services consumption. It also proposes a batch of new initiatives from the perspective of “integrating consumer resources to promote integrated development,” such as rolling out “event + tourism” packages, expanding integrated consumption scenarios of “performances + culture and tourism,” supporting the creation of “international performance consumption zones,” and building international medical tourism brands, so as to better meet the needs of diversified consumption.

For example, the “Measures” propose that in certain regions with appropriate conditions, pilot projects be explored to build international medical tourism concentration areas, providing international patients with services such as high-end health checkups, cosmetic surgery, rehabilitation nursing, and so on. They will also leverage the exemplary and leading role of Hainan Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone, allowing clinical urgently needed drugs (excluding vaccines) and medical devices that are listed overseas but have not yet been approved for registration in China for the same types of products to be used by medical institutions in the zone. It will allow patients at medical institutions within the zone to take with them a reasonable quantity of imported medicines for personal use to leave the pilot zone for use. They will implement the work plan for expanding the opening-up pilot for wholly foreign-owned hospitals; in pilot provinces and cities, they will support the introduction of internationally leading specialty hospitals such as rehabilitation and high-end health checkup institutions.

At the same time, the “Measures” also build a promotion framework 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.” A series of facilitation measures will also be implemented in each step, including payment, tax refunds, communications, sightseeing, and ticketing—for instance, optimizing departure tax refund services, enhancing payment convenience, facilitating inbound telecommunications business registration, studying and promoting the allocation and application of personal intelligent devices for inbound culture and tourism consumption, encouraging lifestyle service software of various types to provide multilingual versions, improving the level of foreign-language services in key venues, and enhancing the convenience of advance ticket booking for foreign tourists in popular scenic areas—so that international travelers can enhance their consumption experience of “traveling in China” and “shopping in China.”

A person in charge from the Department of Service Trade of the Ministry of Commerce said that inbound consumption work involves multiple industries, multiple stages, and multiple related departments. The “Measures” specify to strengthen overall planning, intensify policy coordination, and enhance the collective efforts of departments. The key proposals include 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 factor-based support for inbound-consumption infrastructure based on actual conditions, and actively creating an international consumption environment with global appeal.

(Editor: Wang Zhiqiang HF013)

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