Only Consumption to Rely On?... China Drafts 'Quality Tourism' Strategy

Ministry of Culture and Tourism Announces Measures to Promote Tourism
Improvement of Convenience Including Tourism Reservation System

China has announced a three-year plan aimed at the qualitative growth of its domestic tourism market. This move appears to target revitalizing consumption through tourism amid the need for a strong rebound in the domestic market due to the global economic downturn.

According to local media such as China Securities Journal on the 13th, the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced the "Measures to Release Tourism Consumption Potential and Promote High-Quality Development of the Tourism Industry from 2023 to 2025." Through these measures, the authorities emphasized that by 2025, the scale of China's tourism market should maintain reasonable growth and improve in quality.

[Image source= Xinhua News Agency]

Key tasks include strengthening tourism promotion and marketing, enhancing high-quality tourism supply, improving tourism consumption experiences, increasing the efficiency of public services, supporting the upgrade of operating entities, and strengthening comprehensive market supervision.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism put forward "quality first" as a fundamental principle. In the announcement, it stated, "We must establish the concept that quality is paramount, strengthen awareness of quality responsibility, and ensure that all staff, elements, chains, and processes build management systems," emphasizing that "operating entities should change and upgrade to promote reasonable growth of the tourism market." It further stressed, "In line with the trends of popularization of tourism consumption, personalized travel, and the development of high-quality travel demand, it is necessary to focus on areas and issues where tourist demand is concentrated and improve systems and mechanisms," underscoring the need to "enhance tourist satisfaction."

Additionally, it called for creating large-scale innovative events and festivals centered around "China Tourism Day" on May 19, and urged promotional activities not only through public service advertisements but also via books, films, and animations. Furthermore, plans include optimizing the reservation management system for scenic spots, accurately measuring maximum capacity to improve convenience, fostering various travel platforms, and broadly establishing payment systems.

Meanwhile, as major economies struggle to recover, China’s economic growth appears increasingly reliant on domestic demand. According to the General Administration of Customs, China’s export value in October (in US dollars) was $274.83 billion (approximately 359 trillion won), down 6.4% year-on-year. In contrast, imports rose 3.0% year-on-year to $218.33 billion, supported by domestic market recovery.

However, concerns have emerged that the vitality of the consumer market is below expectations. The related industry did not disclose sales figures for Guanggunje, China’s largest shopping festival recently held, leading to interpretations that sales fell short of expectations. According to estimates by market research firm Xintudata, total sales on comprehensive e-commerce platforms such as Tmall, JD.com, and Pinduoduo from 8 PM on the 10th to midnight on the 11th amounted to 277.6 billion yuan (approximately 50.1567 trillion won), a 9.75% decrease compared to the previous year. Earlier, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for October fell by 0.2%, indicating a trend of weakening demand.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.