Each Economic Hot Review | Consumer Spending with Tourism Boosts Service Consumption and Releasing Domestic Potential
Editorial by Du Hengfeng
January 13th, the General Office of the State Council issued a series of measures to further cultivate new growth points in cultural and tourism consumption (hereinafter referred to as "Measures"), proposing to prioritize the development of the cultural tourism industry and deploying six aspects with 18 specific measures. On the same day, the Shanghai Municipal Government held a meeting, emphasizing that by 2025, it will launch a batch of integrated consumer scenarios and expand the consumption vouchers' guiding effect. In his government work report on January 14th morning, Beijing Mayor Yin Yong pointed out that the key tasks in 2025 include expanding service consumption, increasing high-quality services for birth, aging, beauty, and health, cultivating new forms of consumption, and actively developing emerging industries such as the "first-batch" economy, ice and snow economy, and silver hair economy.
Under policies such as old-for-new replacement and tax breaks, relevant consumer goods have seen significant growth. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, in November 2024, retail sales of household appliances, audio-visual equipment, and furniture increased by 22.2%, 6.6%, and 10.5% respectively, all significantly higher than the overall retail sales growth rate. Boosting consumption is an important content for the economic work in 2025, whether it's cultural tourism, catering, or accommodation, or emerging industries such as silver hair economy and ice and snow economy, which are all part of the tertiary industry and a major component of residents' consumption.
What's more, the "Measures" includes several breakthrough contents worth paying attention to, such as increasing support for cultural tourism projects that meet conditions, allowing local governments to arrange special government bonds to support eligible cultural tourism projects.
On one hand, the government is relaxing restrictions on both supply and demand sides, providing better public services, which can stimulate market vitality. The "Measures" proposes encouraging localities to properly relax the limits on large-scale performances, implement the responsible system for content review, and increase the supply of indoor cultural entertainment products.
On the other hand, new technologies can create new demands, requiring active exploration. The "Measures" proposes researching and formulating regulations for low-altitude flight tourism products, encouraging the development of diverse and differentiated low-altitude flight tourism products, which will help develop the low-altitude economy.
Large-ticket consumer durables have a longer usage cycle, making it less likely that consumers will repeat purchases in the short term. However, service consumption is high-frequency and repetitive, with market demand more stable; service consumption is also difficult to be replaced by technology, which can drive a large number of jobs and increase residents' income.