Several Opinions of the State Council on Promoting the Reform and Development of the Tourism Industry
Several Opinions of the State Council on Promoting the Reform and Development of the Tourism Industry
Several Opinions of the State Council on Promoting the Reform and Development of the Tourism Industry
Guo Fa [2014] No.31
August 9, 2014
The people's governments of all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government; all ministries and commissions of and all institutions directly under the State Council,
The tourism industry, as an important component of modern service industry, plays a great driving role. Acceleration of the reform and development of tourism industry is a necessary requirement for making the tourism industry compatible with the people's upgraded consumption and restructured industrial structure. It is of great significance to the increase of employment and income, the promotion of the development of the central and western regions, the poverty-stricken area's getting rid of poverty and becoming better off, the acceleration of stable growth of economy and the improvement of ecological environment. It is also vital to improve the people's living quality and cultivate and fulfill core socialist values. In order to further promote the reform and development of tourism industry, the following opinions are hereby brought forward:
Article 1 Establish the Scientific Outlook on Tourism
1. Make innovations in the development ideas. Thoroughly implement the decisions of the 18th National People's Congress of the Communist Party of China and the Second Plenary Session of, and the Third Plenary Session of, the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, follow the overall plan for promoting economic, political, cultural, social and ecological progress for advancing the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, uphold to the goal of deepening reform, develop the tourism industry in accordance with the law, coordinate the relation between government and market and promote development featuring law-based governmental supervision and control, enterprises' law-abiding operation and civilized tourism; pursue an integrated development, make a progress in adapting the tourism industry to innovative industrialization, informatization, urbanization and agricultural modernization and ensure the economic benefits, social effect and ecological benefits; remain committed to the policy of putting people first and energetically foster a fine tourism environment that enables the tourists to enjoy a safe, comfortable and happy journey and to discover, taste and broadcast beauty during their trips.
2. Speed up the transformation of development mode. Take accelerated transformation and upgrading of traditional industry and improved quality and effectiveness of service as a major task, bring about a change of attaching equal importance to the sightseeing, leisure and vacationing functions of a tourism product, meet the diversified and multi-level consumer demands for tourism; make tourism development more intensive, place greater emphasis on resource and energy conservation and ecological environmental protection, attach greater importance to cultural inheritance and innovation so as to achieve sustainable development; work to improve the quality of tourism services and achieve the unity of standardized service and personalized service. By 2020, the total amount of domestic tourist consumption will reach CNY5.5 trillion, the per capita number of trips taken by urban and rural residents is 4.5, and the added value of tourism industry accounts for more than 5% of gross domestic product (GDP).
Article 2 Enhance the Driving Force for Tourism Development
3. Deepen the tourism reform. Quicken the functional transition of the governments, and continue to streamline administration and delegate more power to lower levels so as to enable the market to play a decisive role in resource allocation. We shall forge ahead in separating government administration from the management of enterprises and state assets in the field of tourism, effectively giving play to the role of numerous tourism industry associations and encouraging the development of intermediary agencies. Establish the open and transparent market access standards and operating rules, move the industrial and regional barriers, and make tourism market fully open to social capitals. The policy constraint on trans-provincial establishment of branches and sale departments of travel agencies shall be eliminated in all regions, and the travel agencies and tourist vehicle and vessel companies with a considerable brand reputation are encouraged to conduct a trans-regional operation of a chain of travel agencies. Foster and increase the market participants; support tourism enterprises with unique characteristics, encourage the development of professional travel tourism operators, boost the implementation of trans-regional, cross-industry and cross-ownership merger and reorganization by superior enterprises; create the inter-sectoral industrial groups and industrial coalitions; and support the tourism enterprises with proprietary intellectual property rights and national brands. Steady progress shall be made in setting up the national park system to attain the goal of protecting and using the nationally natural and cultural heritage in a more effective manner. Shorten the time for establishment of the booking system of scenic spot ticket, and control the number of tourists to the extent of maximum capacity of a scenic spot. Follow the unified standards for international and domestic tourism services. Improve the statistical index system of and investigation methods for tourism, and develop the tourism development evaluation and assessment system in a scientific way. Cancel the examination and approval for the border tourism projects and delegate the power for examination and approval of the border tourism operation qualification for travel agencies and for foreign-invested travel agency business licensing to the tourism departments at the provincial level.
4. Integrate regional tourism. Continue to enhance joint investment and cooperation with foreign parties, support tourism enterprises to "go out" where conditions permit, and actively expand the international market. Improve the cooperative mechanism for domestic and international regional tourism, create an infrastructure connectivity network of tourist communications, information and services, strengthen the sharing of regional customer resources and develop a pragmatic and efficient cooperative tourism coalition with members benefiting from each other. With the aim of building the Silk Road economic belt and the Maritime Silk Road of the 21st Century, under the economic development and cooperation frameworks for the ASEAN-Mekong River region, Greater Mekong Sub-region, Central Asia Region, Tumen River region as well as BCIM Economic Corridor and Sino-Pakistan Economic Corridor and other regions and sub-regions, adopt the favorable entry-exit policies for border tourism, thus promoting the regional tourism cooperation between China and Southeast Asia, South Asia, Central Asia, Northeast Asia, Central and Eastern Europe. Work vigorously to promote Sino-African cooperation in tourism. Strengthen the bilateral tourism cooperation and carry out the "Tourism Year" activities together with the relevant countries.
5. Make great efforts to promote the inbound tourism market. Improve the national tourism propaganda and promotion system, and make in due course the national tourism propaganda more specialized and market-oriented by adopting such measures as purchase of services by the governments. Develop multiple language versions of the national tourism propaganda and promotion website, hereby improving the national tourism brand image. Study the measures for simplification of the formalities for application for an inbound and cross-bond tourist visa by a foreigner, work to develop the visaing business for foreigners at the qualified ports open-door to the outside world, steadily optimize and improve the 72-hour transit visa-free policy for foreigners, and ensure a proper number of cities and reasonable implementing steps in this regard. Take a holistic approach to research the entry visa-free policies for tourist groups in some countries, and optimize the entry policies for cruises. Simplify the formalities for visaing, entry and exit for foreign tourists, and make continued improvement to such entry services as issuance of visas and frontier inspection.
Article 3 Expand the Space for Tourism Development
6. Work vigorously to develop recreational tourism. Coordinate the people's demands for recreational tourism with the urban and rural planning. Strengthen the facilities construction, improve the service functions, optimize the layout in a reasonable way, and create a recreational environment for individuals. Promote the development of sports tourism, develop the competition performances and fitness and recreation as well as tourism activities in an integrated way, and provide supports and guidance for the sports tourism services offered by the sports venues with good conditions for tourists. Promote the provision of medical tourism services for domestic and foreign customers on the strength of medical resources in terms of plastics, face-lifting, surgery and medicine. Leverage on the advantages of Chinese medicine, thus developing a host of health tourism services and products featuring Chinese medicine. Regulate the service procedures and formulate the standards for service, and develop the medical tourism in terms of specialized medical care, recuperation, rehabilitation, beauty care and health care. The greenways for slow walk and ride shall be constructed in cities with good conditions at a faster pace.
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