According to data released by the Ministry of Commerce, from January to April 2026, my country’s total service import and export volume was 2.48532 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.9%.
Among them, exports were 985 billion yuan, an increase of 15%; imports were 1.50032 billion yuan, a decrease of 0.8%.
The service trade deficit was 515.32 billion yuan, 139.74 billion yuan smaller than the same period last year.
Travel service exports show a trend of rapid growth.
The Ministry of Commerce mentioned that from January to April, the export of travel services was 147.15 billion yuan, an increase of 30.4%, the fastest growing among the top five service export fields.
Behind the substantial growth in travel service exports is the continued strengthening of policy levels.
In recent years, China’s visa-free policy has continued to expand, and has implemented visa-free entry to nearly 80 countries, 50 of which are unilateral.
In 2025, visa-free entry for foreigners will reach 30.08 million, a year-on-year increase of 49.5%.
On May 18, six departments including the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Finance, and the State Administration of Taxation issued the “Notice on Increasing Optimization of Departure Tax Refund Measures to Expand Inbound Consumption.”
This policy is optimized and upgraded based on the “Notice on Further Optimizing Departure Tax Refund Policies to Expand Inbound Consumption” issued last year, and proposes 8 specific measures that are operable and implementable to make tax refunds for overseas tourists more worry-free, time-saving and trouble-free.
Since the introduction of version 1.0 of the policy last year, the volume of outbound tax refund business has increased significantly, and the number of tax refunds in the first quarter of 2026 has increased nearly five times year-on-year.
In order to improve processing efficiency, version 2.0 of the policy draws on international experience and practices to implement random inspections of tax refund application forms with tax refund sales of less than 10,000 yuan. Only selected passengers need to be physically inspected by the customs, which greatly reduces the queue time at the port.
Prior to this, the Ministry of Commerce issued the “Policies and Measures on Promoting the Export of Travel Services and Expanding Inbound Consumption” in March.
The “Measures” propose 16 specific policy measures from seven aspects: expanding inbound tourism consumption, facilitating inbound business activities, activating inbound event consumption, prospering inbound cultural and entertainment consumption, expanding inbound health consumption, developing inbound education and training consumption, and improving safeguard measures.
From the perspective of stimulating new demand for service consumption, the “Measures” specifically mention the following: enriching the supply of inbound tourism products, improving international exhibition services and standards, supporting the introduction of international events, optimizing the approval management of foreign-related commercial performances, and encouraging the development of Chinese education, etc.
From the perspective of “integrating consumption resources”, the “Measures” propose to launch “events + tourism” packages, expand “performing arts + cultural tourism” integrated consumption scenarios, support the creation of “international performing arts consumption areas”, and build international medical tourism brands, etc.
Fu Yifu, a special analyst at Suzhou Commercial Bank, said that vigorously boosting inbound consumption is both a practical demand and a long-term plan.
At present, the recovery of domestic consumption is still under pressure. Inbound consumption can help cultivate new consumption growth points and help stabilize the economic market. At the same time, this is also in line with my country’s high-level opening-up strategy and continues to enhance the international attractiveness of the Chinese market.
Fu Yifu pointed out that inbound consumption can drive the expansion and quality improvement of cultural tourism, commerce, transportation, retail and other related service industries, further enhance the industrial scale, create more jobs, activate the internal vitality of business districts, scenic spots, ports and other consumption scenarios, and form a virtuous cycle of industry linkage development.
“More importantly, through the consumption and communication of overseas tourists, it can promote Chinese brands to the world and shape my country’s new advantages in international consumption.” Fu Yifu said.
