In July 2021, the State Council approved the cultivation and construction of international consumption center cities in five cities including Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Tianjin, and Chongqing.
This year marks the 5th anniversary of the cultivation and construction of international consumer center cities. At a recent press conference held by the State Council Information Office, officials from relevant departments of the Ministry of Commerce presented three numbers: "1/3", "1/2", and "2/3". By 2025, the five cities mentioned above will account for one-third of the country's inbound foreign visitors, half of the country's imported consumer goods, and two-thirds of the country's outbound tax refund sales. Nowadays, five cities have become the core carriers of inbound consumption in China.
Buy more "Golden Business Cards" in China
Over the past five years, Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Tianjin, and Chongqing have cultivated and built international consumption center cities, creating a globally attractive consumption environment.
The cruise industry is a business card for Tianjin to attract international consumption. Last year, Tianjin Dongjiang Comprehensive Bonded Zone launched the "Cruise One Ticket Pass" plan, which allows boat tourists to enjoy discounts with their boat tickets when spending in local scenic spots, restaurants, and hotels; During the recent May Day holiday, the number of inbound and outbound passengers at Tianjin International Cruise Home Port reached a new high this year. It is reported that this year, the port will also welcome many internationally renowned cruise ships such as "Ada Mediterranean", residential luxury cruise ship "World", "Ruijita" under Ocean Cruise Company, and "Jingdian Exploration" under Jingdian Cruise Company, adding vitality to new consumer formats such as "cruise+upstream", "cruise+health", and "cruise+music".
The F1 China Grand Prix held in March this year attracted over 230000 live spectators, with box office revenue increasing by over 30% compared to last year, and overseas audiences accounting for about 16%; The official souvenir shop has an average daily turnover of over 2 million yuan; During the event, the average hotel booking volume within 3 kilometers of the Jiading District stadium increased by 125%; The "ticket economy" connects various consumption scenarios such as cultural tourism, catering, and commerce covering the entire process... Hosting various international events not only unleashes the "spillover effect" of consumption, but also becomes a shining business card for Shanghai to build an international consumption center city.
In the five international consumption center cities, there are more and more similar international consumption "golden business cards".
From actively promoting the first-time economy to optimizing entry policies; From expanding the layout of more duty-free shops to promoting the upgrade of departure tax refund policies... High quality resources are rapidly gathering, with a variety of highlights in different scenarios. Five cities are emphasizing both external attraction and internal education, continuously enriching high-quality supply.
As the capital and international hub, Beijing has turned the "event economy" and "exhibition economy" into new engines for inbound consumption. Creating a "super live" viewing experience for top international tournaments such as the China Open and the Honor of Kings Finals; High level platforms such as the Service Trade Fair and the Chain Expo gather global exhibitors and merchants, linking more than a thousand activities of "Buy in China · Beijing Color Four Seasons" to amplify traffic efficiency... Recently, the Beijing International Auto Show came to an end, with the number of overseas visitors increasing by 1.3 times compared to the previous edition, effectively driving consumption across the entire chain.
As a strong manufacturing city, Chongqing has prominent advantages on the supply side. At the 6th Consumer Expo held in Hainan not long ago, the Chongqing Pavilion exhibited a batch of products in the field of new consumer scenarios, attracting many on-site visitors to "check in": the mass-produced civilian small sightseeing manned submersible "Shazi" that has been put into operation is not only sold in major coastal scenic spots in China, but also exported to international popular tourist attractions such as Bali and Phuket; A "cultural and tourism spacecraft" that can be used as a homestay or leisure experience space in cultural and tourism scenes such as rural areas, grasslands, and mountains. It only needs to be equipped with internal daily necessities and connected to external water and electricity to be put into use... These attract many customers to consult and negotiate.
The 139th Canton Fair held from April 15th to May 5th this year in Guangzhou, a major foreign trade hub in Guangdong Province, also provided an opportunity for local consumers to drive inbound consumption, allowing overseas buyers to enjoy comprehensive discounts and convenience in "food, accommodation, transportation, travel, shopping, and entertainment". During this year's Canton Fair, Guangzhou launched the "Come to Canton Fair, Visit Guangzhou City" inbound consumption check-in activity, setting up three themed routes inside the exhibition hall and within the city. More than 2500 merchants along the route provided exclusive discounts, and fully opened external card acceptance to ensure convenient consumption for overseas merchants; Launch a list of professional markets and time-honored brand markets that foreign merchants must visit, and open 10 free shuttle bus routes from the exhibition hall to the professional markets, making it convenient for merchants to select products in one step.
Continuous optimization of inbound consumption environment
Behind the increasing popularity and fireworks is a continuously optimized consumer environment.
Shanghai will upgrade the "Easy Go" one-stop multilingual service platform in conjunction with the "Buy in China" series of activities, and provide guidance services for overseas travelers' departure tax refunds; Beijing has pioneered the "city wide tax refund, one-stop service" model in China, achieving "instant tax refund for shopping and arbitrary refund for the whole city". It has also taken the lead in realizing cross regional mutual recognition of "instant purchase and refund" and promoted it to 17 provinces and cities across the country, opening a new service model of "one click intelligent tax refund". The processing time for a single transaction has been reduced to less than 2 minutes... In the past five years, five cities have made full use of the transit visa free and entry convenience policies, continuously improving the departure tax refund, foreign-related payment, and multilingual service system.
In scenarios such as travel and dining, payment difficulties are obstacles faced by some inbound consumers. How to resolve this bottleneck and open up the "first mile" of inbound consumption?
To welcome the 139th Canton Fair this spring, Guangzhou has provided foreign merchants with various payment methods such as overseas bank cards, mobile payments, cash, and foreign currency exchange. More than 15000 key merchants in the city support overseas bank cards, and 126 self-service foreign currency exchange machines have been added at ports, hotels, exhibition halls, and subway stations. About 9000 gates in nearly 400 subway stations support international bank card transactions. The "Wanshitong" platform has also launched a convenience service area for foreigners, realizing one-stop handling of travel, payment, business, and daily needs.
In Beijing, the friendly payment system of "large card swiping, small QR code scanning, and cash backing" has covered more than 200 wallets in 7 mainstream card organizations and 37 countries of China Unicom; The "GOBEIJING" platform has launched a travel wallet function for the first time nationwide, allowing overseas individuals to order meals, buy coffee, and take the subway without binding their cards, meeting the needs of small and high-frequency consumption scenarios. Beijing is the first city in the world to support the five major foreign card organizations in the subway system for card passing through the gates. Overseas personnel's transportation payments can be made smoothly through the gates. It has also launched payment and communication integration products such as' Changyou Tong 'and' Mi Fang Card 'nationwide, solving the communication and payment pain points of overseas personnel, "said Park Xuedong, Director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Commerce.
As a "foothold" and souvenir "shopping destination for many overseas tourists coming to China, Shanghai's outbound tax refund sales account for nearly half of the national tax refund sales, and related institutional innovations also lead the country.
Last year, Shanghai's outbound tax refund sales increased by 80% year-on-year, and the processing of outbound tax refunds continued to accelerate, with policy effectiveness continuously released. According to Liu Min, the head of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, the number of departure tax refund shops in Shanghai has exceeded 2100, covering commercial districts, scenic spots, hotels, cultural and sports venues, and exhibition halls. The tax refund scene has expanded from commercial districts and streets to major exhibitions and competitions such as the China International Import Expo, F1 China Grand Prix, and Shanghai Tennis Masters where overseas tourists gather.
In terms of commodity categories, local brands such as "Shanghai Gift", China-Chic New Products, Science and Innovation Famous Products have opened tax rebate services; Combined with the "First Launch in Shanghai" event, many new products launched domestically and internationally have entered the tax refund sales channel. This year, Shanghai also proposed to create a consumer brand IP - Shanghai Customization, and launched a batch of customized tax refund products such as time-honored brands, new Chinese style clothing, jewelry, watches and glasses.
In terms of convenience for refunds, Shanghai has established a service network of "25 city wide refund points+17 centralized refund points in commercial districts+N single store refund points", and implemented a pilot "package and code" model for outbound tax refunds. Overseas passengers use standard sealed bags to package tax refund products, which are quickly verified by customs when leaving the country. In addition, Shanghai also relies on the coordination mechanism of the Yangtze River Delta Integration Development Demonstration Zone to continuously accelerate the pilot of "buy and refund" mutual recognition.
Embrace the new stage of 'deep experience'
As inbound consumption shifts from tourism and sightseeing to a new stage of "deep experience", the five cities are also seeking new international influence.
How to make international consumers have a better experience and still want to come? Creating high-quality products, highlighting distinctive features, and optimizing services are key. For example, Guangzhou has promoted the landing of 55 featured spaces for the first time, creating a "New Eight Scenic Spots for Consumption in Yangcheng" cultural, commercial, and sports exhibition integration IP; Tianjin has built international consumption clusters such as Jinjie and Cultural Center, and "experience economy" such as Yangliu Youth Painting and Canal Transport Culture are hot; Chongqing highlights the characteristics of mountain and river cities, lighting up the "Jiangya Street Dongtian" characteristic consumption scene, polishing the "landscape tourism", "food city", "ecological health" and other characteristic service consumption business cards, and building an international consumption environment for "Chongqing Yue Service".
In Beijing, new forms of consumption such as night economy, silver economy, first-time economy, waterfront economy, and ice and snow economy have become new driving forces for cultivating an international consumption center city. Not long ago, Beijing issued the "Implementation Opinions on Promoting High Quality Urban Development", proposing to build multi-dimensional commercial consumption spaces, promote the transformation and upgrading of key commercial districts, and construct new consumption landmarks with international influence and reputation; Revitalize time-honored brands, focus on developing characteristic businesses, make good use of historical and cultural blocks, industrial relics and other spaces, and promote the deep integration of culture, commerce, sports and exhibitions.
This year, Beijing will also include the promotion of a new model of one-stop tax refund for departure in the government work report task. To further enhance the inbound consumption experience of overseas tourists, Beijing will continue to weave a dense outbound tax refund network, increase the number of outbound tax refund stores, and reasonably layout "buy and refund" service points and centralized refund points throughout the city. By the end of 2027, the number of departure tax refund shops in Beijing is expected to double, with over 100 "buy and refund" shops and over 30 centralized refund points.
In Shanghai, the 2026 "Shanghai Summer" international consumption season will last from early July to early October, focusing on "making it easy for global travelers to come, play, and shop", creating a unique Shanghai style consumption season that runs through the entire summer for global consumers. During the event, we will promote the "Handheld" mobile platform for outbound tax refunds to the world, allowing overseas travelers to handle shopping orders, "buy and refund", customs verification, and port tax refunds online through their mobile phones, and experience the convenient experience of tax refund services brought by digitization and paperless.
In terms of hardware facilities, this year's tax refund agency will launch the 2.0 version of the departure tax refund self-service machine in Shanghai, allowing overseas passengers to complete the "buy and refund" operation through the self-service machine, and choose to refund the tax to their electronic payment account or various mainstream credit cards. At the same time, Shanghai will also take the lead in using self-service inquiry machines and intelligent verification machines at Pudong Airport and Hongqiao Airport for overseas passengers to confirm whether they need customs inspection and refund of goods.
The policy support at the central level will also form a synergy with the cultivation and construction measures in various regions. Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao stated that the Ministry of Commerce will work with five cities to closely integrate benefiting people's livelihoods and promoting consumption, adhere to the dual wheel drive of "policy+activity", create a new model for expanding and upgrading commodity consumption, cultivate new driving forces for service consumption growth, establish a new benchmark for active offline consumption, build a new highland for expanding inbound consumption, and promote the cultivation and construction to achieve new breakthroughs and demonstrate new achievements.