April 22, 2026

General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized “deeply implementing the action to expand and improve the quality of the service industry” and “cultivating more ‘China Services’ brands.” Recently, the Ministry of Commerce, together with the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and six other departments, issued the “Policy Measures on Promoting the Export of Travel Services and Expanding Inbound Consumption” (hereinafter referred to as the “Policy Measures”). The measures propose building a national tourism brand, strengthening global targeted marketing, and continuously improving visa policies, so that more international tourists “want to come to China” and “are able to come to China,” and to promote the creation of globally attractive inbound consumption destinations. The “Policy Measures” apply precise and systematic efforts, injecting new momentum into the development of the inbound tourism market and enhancing the brand image of “China Services.” Travel services are the largest sector of China’s service trade, with imports and exports accounting for more than one quarter of the total service trade. Inbound tourism is a window to observe “China Services.” In recent years, China has continuously promoted visa facilitation, payment internationalization, and service standardization, significantly enhancing the attractiveness of inbound tourism and consumption. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics show that in 2025, China received 35.17 million inbound foreign tourists, an increase of 30.5% compared with 2024. Consumption by inbound tourists in China, including food, accommodation, transportation, travel, shopping, and entertainment, is included in China’s travel service exports. According to the Ministry of Commerce, in 2025, the export scale reached 393.98 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 49.5%, 1.6 times that of 2019. From sightseeing check-ins to in-depth experiences, and from cultural tourism consumption to cultural resonance, “Travel to China” and “Shop in China” have become popular worldwide, enabling the world to understand the unique charm of Chinese culture while demonstrating the sincerity and strength of “China Services” with an open and inclusive attitude. The prosperous development of inbound tourism benefits from a series of policy support measures. The “Policy Measures” propose 16 specific measures covering seven aspects, including expanding inbound tourism consumption and facilitating inbound business activities, building a full-chain promotion system that enables tourists to come, travel smoothly, and spend comfortably. From orderly expanding the scope of unilateral visa-free countries to building the “Travel to China” brand, each measure focuses on key points of expanding inbound tourism consumption, making spontaneous travel to China a convenient choice for global tourists and opening broad space for “China Services” to expand in the global market. Rich and high-quality product supply is a strong support for the prosperity of inbound tourism and an important measure for “China Services” to demonstrate differentiated competitiveness. China has profound cultural heritage and diverse natural landscapes, providing unique advantages for developing inbound tourism. It is necessary to deeply explore cultural resources and create distinctive products such as intangible cultural heritage experiences and folk culture study tours, enabling international tourists to experience the depth and richness of Chinese culture through immersive experiences. It is also necessary to enrich industry formats, promote the deep integration of “sports + tourism,” “performing arts + cultural tourism,” and “wellness + tourism,” and develop new formats such as night tourism and rural tourism. At the same time, localities should be encouraged to develop特色 inbound tourism products according to local conditions, launch high-quality “multi-destination in one trip” routes, and promote integrated consumption plans combining “urban transport + attractions + accommodation + consumption,” to activate consumption potential through diversified supply and enable “China Services” to possess both cultural warmth and market competitiveness. To further tap the potential of inbound tourism, it is also necessary to continuously improve the quality of tourism services. At present, the needs of international tourists are shifting from traditional sightseeing to in-depth experiences and quality consumption, placing higher requirements on service quality. Efforts should focus on the entire process of “food, accommodation, transportation, travel, shopping, and entertainment” to better meet increasingly diversified tourism consumption needs. In terms of language services, it is necessary to improve multilingual signage in scenic spots and promote multilingual versions of lifestyle service applications, ensuring barrier-free communication for international tourists. In terms of digital services, convenient functions such as intelligent navigation and real-time translation should be promoted to empower tourism experiences with technology. In terms of basic services, the level of foreign language services in key locations should be enhanced, allowing international tourists to experience convenient, comfortable, and reassuring “China Services.” The development of inbound tourism not only helps shape a positive international image and promote mutual learning among civilizations, but also drives consumption growth and industrial prosperity, playing an important role in cultivating the cultural tourism industry as a pillar industry. A report by the “Inbound Tourism” research group of the Institute of International Service Trade of the Ministry of Commerce Research Institute believes that with the upgrading of service consumption and the release of policy dividends, inbound tourism will enter a fast track characterized by “simultaneous improvement in quantity and quality and diversified momentum.” The inbound tourism industry will adapt to global trends of quality, experiential, and digital-intelligent cross-border tourism and accelerate toward a new stage of high-quality development. Facing new situations and opportunities, all policy measures should be effectively implemented to further increase the popularity of spontaneous travel to China, making inbound tourism an important window to showcase the charm of “China Services” and release the potential of service trade, and enabling it to shine more brightly on the global tourism stage. Source: People’s Daily