Ministry unveils tourism initiatives to boost sector

Precise measures targeting existing problems in the country's inbound tourism market will be launched, officials from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism said on Friday. The ministry will promote the facilitation of payments in various sectors such as tourist attractions, cultural and performance venues and star-rated hotels, it said. It will also enrich the supply of inbound tourism products and services, and step up market promotion abroad to better satisfy the needs of inbound travelers to the country.

"We will focus on improving the convenience of payments at key tourist destinations," said Wu Kefeng, deputy head of the ministry's department of resource development. This includes promoting the establishment of necessary software and hardware facilities for accepting mobile payments, bank cards, and cash at all national 5A and 4A tourist attractions, national and provincial tourist resorts, and national-level tourist leisure districts, Wu said.

The ministry will also actively cooperate with relevant departments to promote the establishment of foreign currency exchange service points in tourist resorts and national-level tourist leisure districts with a high influx of inbound tourists, or encourage nearby bank branches to provide foreign currency cash exchange services. At the same time, all tourist attractions will retain manned windows to offer ticket services for inbound travelers, while English-language online reservation procedures will be delivered, Wu said.

"For reservations requiring real-name authentication, foreign passports, permanent residence identity cards for foreigners, and travel permits for residents of Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan to the Chinese mainland will be included in the recognized range of identification documents," Wu said.

Additionally, key tourist attractions will be pushed to improve multilingual signage and guiding facilities and continuously enhance the foreign language service capabilities. As China's visa-free "circle of friends" expands, foreign tourists have shown increasing willingness to travel to China.