With the continuous development of China's economy and the improvement of people's living standards, the tourism industry has become an important part of driving domestic economic growth. According to the forecast of the China Tourism Academy, by 2024, the number of domestic tourism trips is expected to break through 6 billion, and tourism income is expected to exceed 6 trillion RMB, demonstrating enormous market potential.

At a brand promotion conference held in Ergun City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Mayor Geng Hao mentioned that the Erguna River possesses distinctive natural and cultural resources, such as the beautiful G331 border route and the largest wetland in Asia. The city government has begun early planning and proactive layout, enriching tourism products and innovating tourism forms, making positive efforts for the development of all-region tourism and the expansion of the tourist market.

With the arrival of the Dragon Boat Festival and the summer vacation peak season, various places have hosted summer tourism promotion meetings, enhancing the supply of quality tourism products. Local governments have also introduced a number of policy measures, continuously unleashing the multiplier effect of the cultural and tourism industry chain, providing strong support for the high-quality development of the national economy.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced that in May, it will launch a series of "5·19 China Tourism Day" related activities, and the nation will introduce over 6300 tourism benefit measures, including reduced ticket prices for attractions, free admission to scenic spots, and discounts provided by tourism enterprises, with a total of more than 1 billion RMB in consumer vouchers distributed. Additionally, to further stimulate consumer enthusiasm and promote high-quality development of the cultural and tourism industry, the National Development and Reform Commission and other six departments jointly released a series of actions to update equipment and enhance smart tourism.

The heat of the culture and tourism market continues to climb, and with the emergence of new forms and scenarios, the vitality of consumption continues to strengthen. Tourism has become an everyday consumption choice for more and more people, with increasing emphasis on the personalization, diversity, and cultural connotation of tourism products and services.

According to data, the number of domestic trips in the first quarter of this year increased to 1.419 billion, an increase of 203 million over the same period of the previous year, up by 16.7%. The total expenditure of tourists reached 1.52 trillion RMB, with a year-on-year growth of 17.0%.

At Wulin Square in the city center of Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, hundreds of merchants brought nearly a thousand types of gourmet food, attracting a large number of citizens and tourists. The event not only featured gourmet food but also city theme pavilions, immersive experiences, and intangible cultural heritage crafts experiences, greatly enriching the consumer experience. According to statistics, more than 100,000 citizens and tourists have participated in the event, with consumption exceeding 10 million RMB.

Other cities, such as the Mandu Carnival night market in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, and the Shuiyun Langya tourist area in Linyi, Shandong Province, have also launched local special tourism projects, such as new trends in nighttime tourism and the creation of fashionable consumption clusters, injecting new vitality into the local tourism industry.

Li Chun, a professor at the School of Statistics of Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, believes that there is a positive reciprocal cycle between nighttime tourism and urban economic development.

Nighttime tourism, as a burgeoning economic force, has not only extended consumer activity time and attracted a massive influx of tourists into the consumption craze, but it has also injected new vitality into the growth of related industries. This growth, in turn, has promoted an increase in employment opportunities and income enhancement, exerting a positive effect on the improvement of residents' consumption capacity. Along with the rapid development of the nighttime economy, the China Urban Nighttime Economy Vitality Index Report reveals that in 2023, the scale of China's nighttime market reached an impressive 1.57 trillion yuan. Therefore, the nighttime economy is gradually transforming into a key channel for stimulating consumption vitality, driving urban prosperity, and promoting economic growth.

Observing recent development dynamics, we can see that the third batch of national-level nighttime cultural and tourism consumption concentration area list released by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism includes 102 projects, indicating that more and more cities are accelerating the layout of the nighttime economy and innovating supply modes. Dai Bin, the dean of the China Tourism Academy, emphasizes that tourism practitioners need to adopt innovative ideas to adapt to changes in tourist consumption demands. This means that establishing a modernized tourism industry system and strengthening the high-quality development of the tourism industry are crucial for achieving the long-term stable growth of China's tourism industry. For this purpose, many local governments have successively introduced various policies to promote consumption.

As can be seen at the National Conference on Tourism Development, this is the first major meeting held by the Party Central Committee focusing on tourism development, showing the high importance attached to the development of the tourism industry. During the Chinese Tourism Day, various localities have taken active measures. For example, Guangdong Province plans to organize 287 cultural and tourism activities and launch 602 cultural and tourism benefits measures, including the distribution of cultural and tourism coupons totaling 2 million yuan, providing scenic spot ticket discounts, and free cultural and artistic performances, to further enrich the supply of cultural and tourism products and services. From May to October, Anhui Province will hold thousands of activities focusing on cultural and tourism festivals, food carnivals, etc. In response to the growing demand for cultural and tourism consumption among residents, the Anhui Provincial Department of Finance has continuously sponsored the benefit consumption season for ten years and plans to continue to allocate 10 million yuan during the "520" activities in 2024 to implement the "two watches and one taste" (watching books, watching performances, and tasting specialty foods) benefit consumption activities.

Sun Hongmei, Vice Chairman of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, also proposed that Xinjiang would commit to the improvement and upgrade of tourist spots to build a first-class tourism destination. At the same time, it will promote the development of the ice and snow industry and the prosperity of ice and snow tourism, based on natural resources such as the Altai Mountains and Tianshan Mountains, explore special tourism such as adventure tours, study tours, health tours, desert tours, and other unique tourism modes, create first-class self-driving routes, and facilitate the development of border tourism and cross-border tourism products. In addition, the cultural and tourism industry has also gained more policy support. For example, Hainan's three-year action plan for high-quality tourism development proposed to advance industry integration and create a high-quality product supply system through ten aspects, including health tourism, marine tourism, rural tourism, etc., to satisfy various tourist needs.

The Hubei Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism also released a work plan aimed at accelerating Hubei's strategic position in Chinese-style modernization through the innovative development of smart culture and tourism. These actions and plans all reflect the increasingly important role of the tourism industry as an engine for economic growth and its ever-growing impact on the entire socio-economic system.

To enhance cultural tourism and ice & snow consumption, enrich consumption scenarios, and open up more managerial space, the General Office of the Shandong Provincial People's Government has recently launched a series of measures to promote sustained improvement in consumption. These policies aim to strengthen the construction of intelligent infrastructure, expand the scenarios and products in the digital culture and tourism field, and accelerate the informatization research of culture and tourism, while also focusing on the innovative practice of intelligent marketing.

Specifically, the relevant suggestions propose the development of a variety of consumption scenarios, such as exploring ancient discoveries, seeking hidden landscapes, nostalgia trips, script interactions, and rural experiences, as well as organizing festivals and events with international and nationwide influence such as music festivals and fashion weeks. Moreover, the suggestions also focus on creating cruise consumption scenarios with Shandong characteristics, as well as promoting the organic integration of red tourism with local development.

The suggestions also emphasize the steady promotion of “urban park + consumption scenarios” and “scenic spot + consumption scenarios” models, encouraging the improvement of supporting services in parks and scenic spots according to regional characteristics, and the regulated addition of commercial facilities to enrich consumption supply. At the same time, it encourages the transformation of urban commercial spaces into park-like environments to improve the quality of consumption environments and expand diverse consumption choices in densely populated areas.

Industry analysis points out that tourism consumption belongs to final consumption and has characteristics of being multi-level, diverse, and sustainable. According to statistics, each yuan of income generated by the tourism industry can drive related industries to create an income of 4.3 yuan. With the continuous release and upgrading of tourism consumption demand, its share in residents' total consumption expenditure is continuously rising, making tourism consumption a key area to drive consumption growth and expand domestic demand.