Learning, Thinking, Practicing, and Realizing

Developing the tourism industry is of great significance for better serving a better life, promoting economic development, building a spiritual home, showcasing China's image, and enhancing mutual learning among civilizations. On May 19th, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out during his inspection in Henan that "the integration of culture and tourism has broad prospects, and we must promote the high-quality development of the cultural and tourism industry, truly building it into a pillar industry, livelihood industry, and happiness industry". During the 15th Five Year Plan period, it is necessary to thoroughly implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions of "adhering to integrity and innovation, improving quality and efficiency, integrating development, coordinating government and market, supply and demand, protection and development, domestic and international, development and security", scientifically grasp the characteristics of the tourism industry's development, face new demands, cultivate new driving forces, focus on improving the modern tourism industry system, and promote high-quality development of the tourism industry.

New Trends in the Development of China's Tourism Industry during the 14th Five Year Plan Period

The "2024 Statistical Bulletin on Cultural and Tourism Development" recently released by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism shows that in 2024, China's domestic residents traveled 5.62 billion times, a year-on-year increase of 14.8%. The total expenditure of domestic residents on travel was 5.8 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17.1%. During the 14th Five Year Plan period, the development scale of China's tourism industry continued to grow and the industry structure continued to optimize, presenting a series of new trends and characteristics.

Mass tourism has entered a new stage of comprehensive development. Currently, tourism has been integrated into the daily lives of urban and rural residents, becoming a daily option for people to enjoy a better life. More and more residents from central towns and rural areas in counties are participating in tourism activities, becoming the new main body of tourism consumption. The rich natural and cultural heritage in our country has become the fundamental resource for the development of the tourism industry, meeting the new needs of tourists for leisure, vacation, study, and travel. People experience the beauty of life during their journey, and a better life for the people has become a new driving force for the high-quality development of the tourism industry. In the face of new demands in the tourism market and changes in the tourism industry, it is even more necessary to take high-quality development as the guiding ideology for medium - and long-term planning and practical innovation in the tourism industry.

Culture and tourism are integrating and developing on a larger scale, deeper level, and at a higher level. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly issued important instructions and directives on the integrated development of culture and tourism, emphasizing the importance of "shaping tourism with culture and promoting culture with tourism", and promoting the deep integration of culture and tourism. Since ancient times, the Chinese nation has combined tourism with cultural cultivation, advocating for "reading ten thousand books and traveling ten thousand miles". Tourism is the way to cultivate one's character, and by visiting the scenic spots along the river and mountains, one can connect with the spirit of heaven and earth. Along the way of travel, one can not only enjoy the scenery, but also the mind. Today, national cultural parks, archaeological site parks, historic and cultural cities, ancient towns and neighborhoods, museums, memorial halls, libraries, cultural centers, intangible cultural heritage and folk customs, concerts, and concerts have become increasingly important tourism scenes. New works, projects, and formats that integrate culture and tourism continue to emerge, responding to the new requirements of the contemporary tourism industry to "benefit the people with culture and tourism".

The tourism industry is accelerating its transformation from traditional to modern, with advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence, and digitization becoming new driving forces for tourism development. Technology is profoundly changing people's production and lifestyle, reconstructing the tourism industry chain, and reshaping the contemporary tourism development pattern. Highways, high-speed railways, aviation industry, satellite navigation, and other technologies are profoundly changing the way people travel, allowing more and more people to freely reach farther distances. Digital technology provides strong support for scene reconstruction and content innovation, creating a large number of new cultural spaces and tourism scenes, cultivating technological innovation and cultural creative enterprises, and forming new formats such as smart scenic spots, smart hotels, and smart transportation. Big data technology is widely used in tourism statistics, passenger flow monitoring and early warning, credit evaluation, etc., effectively improving the modernization level of tourism governance system and governance capacity.

The inbound tourism market is accelerating its recovery, and the international, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan tourism markets have entered a new stage of sustained growth and comprehensive development. In 2023, the Central Economic Work Conference made targeted arrangements to address the bottlenecks of foreign nationals coming to China for business, study, and tourism. In 2024, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Further Optimizing Payment Services and Improving Payment Convenience". Under the promotion of multiple policies at the central and local levels, the "bottlenecks" faced by foreign tourists traveling to China, such as payment difficulties, ticket purchasing difficulties, and accommodation difficulties, have been significantly improved, and "Chinese tourism" has quickly become a global hotspot. In 2024, China received approximately 130 million inbound tourists, with a total expenditure of 94.2 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of over 60%. Among them, 26.94 million foreign tourists were received, a year-on-year increase of 95.5%. The number of foreign nationals who entered the country through visa free entry was 20.12 million, an increase of 112.3%.

Key points for promoting high-quality development of the tourism industry during the 15th Five Year Plan period

In order to promote high-quality development of the tourism industry during the 15th Five Year Plan period, it is necessary to effectively address issues such as uneven tourism development, insufficient tourist satisfaction, lack of new development momentum, weak market entities, and insufficient residents' sense of gain. In the national tourism development planning system, a series of targeted measures must be deployed around these issues.

Satisfy high-level demand with high-quality supply. On the one hand, revitalizing the stock of the tourism industry and enhancing the endogenous driving force for high-quality development of the tourism industry. Fully implement projects such as revitalizing tourist attractions, innovating tourist resorts, and revitalizing tourism and leisure districts. By relying on natural resources in tourist attractions, modern tourism facilities, equipment, and cultural entertainment projects are introduced, and low altitude flights, desert hotels, hot spring health preservation, science popularization research, mass sports, and cultural entertainment projects are developed according to local conditions, continuously improving tourist experience and willingness to revisit. On the other hand, cultivating new technological drivers, creating new scenarios, and utilizing humanistic economics to promote urban leisure and rural tourism. Encourage investment institutions and market entities to build more small yet refined, beautiful, and warm projects. Strengthen the cultivation and support of tourism sub sectors such as hotels, scenic spots, and travel agencies, and encourage cultural, sports, and transportation enterprises to provide cross disciplinary "tourism" services.

Actively cultivate national tourism routes and accelerate the construction of first stop cities for inbound tourism. World class tourist cities, tourist attractions, tourist resorts, national tourism routes, world-class tourism enterprises, and service brands are the fundamental support for high-quality development. Relying on the five national cultural parks of the Great Wall, Grand Canal, Long March, Yellow River, and Yangtze River, we will focus on cultivating national tourism routes. Relying on the "Eight Verticals and Eight Horizontals" high-speed railway network and the national expressway network, we will promote the integration of transportation and tourism, and focus on cultivating a number of tourism special trains and self driving tourism routes. Accelerate the construction of Hainan International Tourism Consumption Center, Qinghai International Ecotourism Destination, Hubei World Famous Cultural Tourism Destination, Guilin World Class Tourist City, etc., and accelerate the construction of Hexi Corridor and Bashu Cultural Tourism Corridor. Relying on Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Xi'an, Chengdu, Chongqing and other cities to build first stop cities for inbound tourism for foreign tourists, relying on Shenzhen, Zhuhai and other cities to build first stop cities for inbound tourism for Hong Kong and Macao, working together with Hong Kong and Macao to cultivate a multi destination Greater Bay Area tourism city cluster, and relying on Xiamen, Fuzhou and other cities to build first stop cities for inbound tourism for Taiwan. Coordinate with the finance, taxation, customs, and financial departments to improve the market duty-free shops, departure tax refund points, and international credit card payment system in the first stop city. Coordinate with customs, civil aviation, railway, maritime, postal and other departments to promote remote check-in in urban areas, hotel luggage check-in, and direct baggage transfer from entry to domestic destinations, promote "tourism logistics", and build an international tourist friendly city.

Promote the deep integration and development of culture and tourism. Adhere to the principles of shaping tourism through culture, promoting culture through tourism, integrating when appropriate, and integrating whenever possible, promote the extensive integration of excellent traditional Chinese culture, revolutionary culture, advanced socialist culture, and modern tourism demand, promote the deep integration of cultural industry and tourism supply, and create more new cultural experience spaces and tourism consumption scenes for tourists. Support cultural, scientific research, and tourism enterprises to invest in and construct large-scale theme parks in tourist destinations and vacation areas. Promote the integration of cultural relics and tourism, classify and improve cultural relics themed tourism routes, cultivate and promote cultural heritage themed tourism routes. Promote the integration of education and tourism, with a focus on extracurricular practice for primary and secondary school students. Advocate for the "spirited study of scholars and the travel of the country and the world", improve the full life cycle study tour guarantee system, and focus on building a number of high-level national campsites, study bases, and study courses. Promote the integration of film and television literature with tourism, cultivate and promote a number of film and literature themed routes such as "traveling with movies", "traveling with textbooks", and "traveling with famous works". Promote the sinking of art and the upward trend of tourism, allowing tourists to appreciate the beauty of nature, comprehend the beauty of culture, and cultivate the beauty of the soul during their travels. Promote the integration of tourism and technology, actively develop smart tourism, tap into the resource potential of advanced manufacturing, national heavy equipment, and digital technology, so that domestic and foreign tourists can see the long-standing cultural heritage and the endless future scenes on this beautiful land.

Author | Dai Bin

Source | June 10, 2025, Guangming Daily, 6th edition

Editor in Chief | Liu Xin

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