(Source: "Economic Daily" 2025-09-12 Page 11)
September 12,"Economic Daily" Think Tank EditionPublished the article "Promoting Open Cooperation in Global w88 in Services",Wang Ying, researcher at the Beijing Institute for Opening up, a high-end think tank in the capital, and executive vice president of the National Institute for Opening up at the w88 casinoInvited to express views on "enhancing the international competitiveness of travel services". The following is the content of the article (excerpt).
From September 10th to 14th, the 2025 China International Fair for w88 in Services was held in Beijing. President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter stating that China is willing to work with all parties to promote open and innovative cooperation in global services w88, build an open world economy, and continuously inject new impetus into building a community with a shared future for mankind. w88 in services is an important part of international w88 and an important area of international economic and w88 cooperation. Against the backdrop of profound changes in the current world economic landscape, how to accelerate the innovative development of w88 in services? In this issue, experts are invited to discuss relevant issues.
Enhancing the international competitiveness of travel services
Travel services are the fastest growing area of my country’s service w88. What positive results have been achieved?
Wang Ying (researcher at the Beijing Institute for Opening-up, a high-end think tank in the capital, and executive vice president of the National Institute for Opening-up, w88 casino):Travel services refer to goods and services obtained by non-resident travelers from an economy for their own use or as gifts during their visit to that economy. Travel service w88 is statistics based on consumers. It is not a specific service, but the total number of goods and services purchased by non-resident travelers in the economy they visit. Classified by travel purpose, including official (business) travel and personal (private) travel; classified by product, including goods, transportation services, accommodation services, catering services, and other travel-related services (medical services, educational services).
From a global perspective, travel service w88 accounts for the highest proportion, accounting for approximately 1/4 of the total global service w88. According to the World Tourism Barometer released by the World Tourism Organization, global international tourist arrivals exceeded 300 million in the first quarter of this year, a year-on-year increase of 5%, and a year-on-year increase of 3% in 2019 before the COVID-19 epidemic, highlighting the strong global tourism demand and the industry's ability to withstand pressure.
In recent years, "travel to China" and "shopping in China" have continued to heat up, and my country has become the largest source of tourists and the main destination for international tourism.In 2024, my country’s travel services import and export volume exceeded 2 trillion yuan for the first time, accounting for approximately 27.3% of the total service w88. In the first half of this year, travel services maintained rapid growth, with imports and exports reaching 1.08029 billion yuan, an increase of 12.3%, becoming the largest area of service w88. Among them, exports grew by 68.7%, achieving outstanding results. Behind its growth rate is the superposition of multiple favorable factors, including improved policies such as transit visa exemption, flight resumption, and departure tax refunds, as well as the continuous and rapid development of my country's catering, hotels, business travel and other service industries. Tourism has become an important interface connecting Chinese services with the global market, and China has become an important force in the growth of global w88 in services.
Continue to promote policies such as visa facilitation and lower entry thresholds.As of July this year, my country has implemented unilateral visa exemption or comprehensive mutual visa exemption for 75 countries, and 240-hour transit visa exemption for 55 countries. In addition, regional visa-free policies such as visa-free entry to Hainan, visa-free entry for tour groups from ASEAN countries, and visa-free entry for cruise ships provide more convenience. Visa-free entry has become the main channel for foreigners to travel and do business in China, driving inbound tourism to continue to increase. In the first half of this year, 13.64 million foreigners entered the country without visas, accounting for 71.2% of all foreigners entering the country, a year-on-year increase of 53.9%. For example, Hainan has benefited from the overlay effect of policies and has expanded the number of countries that can enter visa-free to 85 countries. This not only drives the export of travel services, but also has measures such as convenient port visa processing and convenient guarantee of stay and residence, which have significantly improved the entry experience. Shenzhen has realized that port visa processing can be completed within 30 minutes, and has cooperated with major ports such as Beijing and Shanghai to establish a "port visa transfer application" service mechanism, which greatly simplifies the registration procedures and reduces the time and economic costs of foreigners.
Expand inbound consumption measures, improve quality and upgrade, and optimize inbound experience.This year’s “Government Work Report” proposes to improve duty-free shop policies and promote the expansion of inbound consumption. In April, the "Notice on Further Optimizing Departure Tax Refund Policies to Expand Inbound Consumption" issued by six departments including the Ministry of Commerce emphasized the need to further enrich market supply, optimize tax refund services, and expand inbound consumption. In addition, we will optimize inbound tourism payment facilitation services and further strengthen work coordination and information sharing. For example, Alipay and WeChat Pay fully support the binding of overseas bank cards, telecom operators provide convenient real-name short-term phone card processing services at ports of entry, promote the use of self-service customs clearance systems, optimize the biometric collection process for foreigners, enrich tax-free products and promote the "buy now and return" policy, and improve multi-lingual signs for cultural and tourism venues. A series of entry facilitation policies cover the diversified consumption scenarios of overseas tourists traveling in China, effectively solving problems such as "difficulty in payment", "difficulty in communication" and "difficulty in tax refunds", and continuously enhancing the attractiveness and reputation of China's consumer market.
Deepen the construction of international consumption center cities and create an international consumption environment.In March this year, the State Council forwarded a notice from the Ministry of Commerce on "Several Measures to Support the Cultivation and Construction of International Consumption Center Cities", providing policy support from eight aspects to Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Tianjin, and Chongqing to accelerate the cultivation and construction of international consumption center cities and create a globally attractive consumption environment. These cities have taken active actions and adopted differentiated measures to create a highland for inbound tourism services. Beijing has always adhered to the principle of excellence, built a new cultural tourism development ecology of "please those who are near, and visit those who are far away". In terms of product supply, it continues to enhance the influence of the "Great Beauty Axis", enriches world heritage tourism, and creates hard-core products that integrate the heritage of the ancient capital and the Olympic heritage. In the first half of this year, it received 2.467 million inbound tourists, a year-on-year increase of 48.8%. Shanghai focuses on global narratives and refined scenes, and strives to create the "Shanghai Summer" annual landmark event of the international consumption season, attracting global tourists with an open attitude and immersive experience. Chongqing focuses on the three major IPs of the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, Shanshui City, and Colorful Wuling, integrating 64 4A-level and above scenic spots to create a world-class Three Gorges tourism cluster.
my country’s travel service exports are growing rapidly, and citizens’ outbound travel consumption is huge. It is an important engine for the recovery of the global tourism market and has effectively promoted the development of the cultural tourism industry in many tourist destinations. At the same time, we must also note that my country's travel service w88 has problems such as unbalanced import and export development, insufficient recognition by international tourists, and insufficient consumption-stimulating effects.Future,It is necessary to promote innovative development in key areas, reshape the travel service value chain with digitization, intelligence, and greenness, and use digital technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence to provide better new travel scenarios, new methods, and new experiences. Strengthen the function of cities as development carriers and engines, and integrate the high-quality development of travel services into the process of urban renewal, kinetic energy conversion, quality improvement, and green transformation. Enrich high-quality supply and innovate the "travel +" model to stimulate consumption potential, enhance the industry-leading effect, and cultivate new growth momentum. Integrate excellent traditional culture, regional characteristic culture, and urban historical context into the entire process of tourism product and service design, marketing and promotion, and continuously enhance the international competitiveness of travel services.
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