China's Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Tianjin and Chongqing are taking precise measures from various aspects, including advancing the debut economy, optimizing entry policies and improving consumption environment, to accelerate the pace of transforming themselves into international consumption centers.
Shanghai has further pushed the city's consumption potential by organizing a series of large-scale comprehensive consumption festivals such as the "Double Five Shopping Festival" and the "Shanghai Summer" campaign.
According to the city's immigration authorities, foreign tourist entries stand at over 2.5 million so far this year, marking a year-on-year increase of more than 44 percent.
Shanghai's upgraded instant tax refund service with digital refund option has been widely praised by foreign tourists, allowing eligible foreign tourists to receive tax refunds immediately after purchase rather than waiting until departure at the airport.
"We just need to shop, and then the process is simple. We just need to show our card, the record of payment, and then the money just goes easy to our account," said a tourist from Indonesia.
Beijing continues to launch a variety of cultural and tourism products and innovate consumption scenarios, while optimizing the layout of consumption landmarks throughout the city and upgrading services to facilitate foreign tourists.
In the first five months of this year, Beijing received a total of 1.971 million inbound tourists, reflecting an increase of 54.1 percent year-on-year.
Guangzhou City in south China's Guangdong Province now has more than 500 shops that are able to provide tax refund service for foreign tourists, scattered in all of the 11 urban districts.
The number of tax refund application forms issued has increased by 2.03 times year-on-year, while the sales have risen some 1.29 times year-on-year.
Fully leveraging its urban resources as a major city on the coast of the Bohai Sea and the banks of the Haihe River, north China's Tianjin Municipality has developed a series of iconic business districts and benchmark commercial projects. Additionally, it has revitalized historical buildings by introducing first-store restaurants and shopping venues, thereby further stimulating consumer spending.
"Tianjin is vigorously developing the debut economy and continuously enhancing the convenience of inbound consumption. The city is accelerating the pace of developing itself into a distinctive tourist destination and an international consumption center, boosting confidence for both domestic and foreign consumers," said He Xiaoyang, director of the consumption promotion department of the Tianjin Municipal Commercial Bureau.
Giving full play to its unique urban landscape resources of being surrounded by mountains and rivers, southwest China's Chongqing Municipality has created a series of distinctive consumption scenarios, such as the Hongyadong shopping complex, drawing over 500 million tourists annually.
Since April this year, Chongqing has held regular drone light shows, improving the nightscape experience and boosting average full consumer rate to over 70 percent for nearby key restaurants and the average occupancy rate to over 80 percent for key hotels.
Chinese cities take precise measures to develop themselves into int'l consumption centers
