By Niu Jiaru, Institute of Public Administration and Human Resources, DRC

Research Report, No.288, 2020 (Total 6032) 2020-12-7

Abstract: Consumption has become an important growth driver for China. Since the beginning of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020), tourism consumption has played an increasingly stronger role in economic and social development. As China has gained a major control of pandemic COVID-19, its tourist consumption market is witnessing a booming recovery. China’s tourism industry now bears the following features. The domestic tourism potential is continuously unleashed, tourist consumption upgrading is stepped up, the scale for vacation consumption is expanded, increased vitality for night tourism consumption is gaining momentum and the number of scenic spots for tourist consumption in rural areas is increased. However, China’s tourist consumption also faces some problems such as insufficient supply of high-quality tourist products and services, transport means and consumption environment remain to be improved, and institutional arrangements need to be further reformed. Therefore, it is necessary to supply the market with more high-quality products, build smart destinations for tourists, improve transport means during holidays and vacations, regulate the market order for tourism, launch demonstrative scenic spots, and strengthen tourist consumption statistics and monitoring. It is hoped that these efforts could help promote the inbound tourist consumption in the post-pandemic era.

Keywords: post-pandemic era, tourism consumption, policy options