CCTV News:On March 29th, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism held a regular press conference to introduce the first quarter, 2024 1-mdash; In February, the number of foreigners entering and leaving the country totaled 2.945 million, an increase of 2.3 times from the previous month. Efforts will be made to improve the payment facilitation level of key tourist sites and build an inclusive and diverse payment environment.
According to the statistics of the National Immigration Bureau, January 2024 — In February, the total number of foreigners entering and leaving the country was 2.945 million, up 2.3 times from the previous month and returning to 41.5% before the epidemic.
During the Spring Festival, the effect of visa-free policy in China appeared. In countries such as France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Malaysia, Singapore, etc., which can enter China visa-free, the number of tourists increased significantly, and the total number of inbound travel orders on some travel OTA platforms doubled compared with the same period in 2019.
While inbound tourism has resumed, some foreign tourists have reported that at present, the reservation policy and consumption environment of some scenic spots are not convenient enough. In this regard, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism introduced that in terms of optimizing the payment environment, efforts will be made to improve the payment facilitation level of key tourist sites, and promote the establishment of hardware and software facilities for accepting mobile payments, bank cards, cash, etc. in national 5A and 4A tourist attractions, national and provincial tourist resorts, and national tourist and leisure blocks, so as to promote online and offline payments to be more convenient and build an inclusive and diverse payment environment.
At the same time, we will actively work with relevant departments to promote the deployment of foreign currency exchange service points in tourist resorts and national tourist and leisure blocks with more inbound tourists and dense consumption places, or promote the provision of foreign currency cash exchange services at surrounding bank outlets to better meet the cash payment needs of inbound tourists.
Enriching the supply of tourism products and services and boosting inbound tourism
On March 29th, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism held a regular press conference in the first quarter to introduce the work related to promoting the facilitation of inbound tourism. The relevant person in charge said that the domestic tourism industry is becoming more and more abundant, and ice and snow tourism, city walking and immersive experience are all very popular. In terms of inbound tourism, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism will also enrich the supply of tourism products and services.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism said that it is necessary to adhere to the principle of "building tourism with literature and displaying literature with tourism", deepen the integrated development of culture and tourism, encourage and guide the application of scientific and technological innovation in the fields of culture and tourism, and use the new generation of digital technology to create an immersive, digital and interactive tourism space. Cultivate new tourism formats such as immersive cultural tourism experience, tourism performing arts, ice and snow tourism, star-watching tourism, avoiding cold and summer, and city walking. Enrich brands such as "traveling with performances" and "traveling with events", and supply high-quality tourism products and services to better meet the tourism consumption needs of tourists. Let foreign tourists enjoy the great rivers and mountains in China and feel the new atmosphere of digital culture in China. Constantly optimize the consumption environment, improve the level of convenience, so that foreign tourists can feel at ease when traveling, shopping, entertaining, watching performances and serving in China.
The general principle of improving the convenience level of inbound tourism payment: large credit card and small code scanning cash
According to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the General Office of the State Council recently issued the Opinions on Further Optimizing Payment Services and Improving Payment Convenience (hereinafter referred to as the Opinions), which put forward many specific measures. The general principles are large credit card swiping, small code scanning and cash backing.
According to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, a large credit card is to set up POS machines in scenic spots, hotels and other consumption scenes according to the habit of foreign tourists paying by credit card. At present, five-star, four-star or even three-star hotels in Shanghai have upgraded their POS machines, and many airports, scenic spots and shopping places have also set up wild card POS machines. Beijing is also accelerating the upgrading of POS machines with foreign cards.
In terms of small code scanning, at present, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism is working with the platform and enterprises to solve technical and procedural problems. On the premise of ensuring property safety, try to increase the amount of small scanning code to better meet the needs of tourists. At the same time, we should be able to use RMB in all places of consumption.
In the next step, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism will fully consider the payment habits of different consumer groups in accordance with the requirements of large credit card, small code scanning and cash. On the basis of improving the convenience of mobile payment, we will further improve the acceptance environment and cash use environment of domestic and foreign bank cards in star-rated tourist hotels, and strive to achieve full coverage of domestic and foreign bank cards in three-star and above tourist hotels. For star-rated tourist hotels with a large number of foreigners coming to China, foreign currency exchange business outlets will be set up to provide foreign currency exchange services, and the level of payment facilitation will be continuously improved.