MOFCOM, MCT, China Railway and 5 Other Units Issue Measures to Integrate Rail and Tourism and Expand Service Consumption
Eight departments including MOFCOM, MCT and China Railway issued a notice with measures to promote integrated rail-tourism development and expand service consumption.
To: the NDRC, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Transport, MOFCOM, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the People's Bank of China, the National Financial Regulatory Administration, the General Administration of Sport, the China Meteorological Administration, the National Railway Administration and China State Railway Group Co., Ltd.; the development and reform, industry and information technology, finance, transport, commerce and culture and tourism authorities, financial regulatory bureaus, sports administrative departments, meteorological bureaus and local railway regulatory bureaus of all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government and cities under separate state planning, and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps; the Shanghai Head Office of the People's Bank of China and its branches in all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government and cities under separate state planning; the communications administrations of all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government and cities under separate state planning; and all railway group companies:
In order to thoroughly implement the important instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping on the development of the service industry, carry out the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council on accelerating the building of a strong transport nation and a strong tourism nation and on developing service consumption, further expand new railway tourism supply, create diversified consumption scenarios, and promote a new situation of deep integrated development of railways and tourism, and to achieve by 2030 goals such as notable results in integrated railway-tourism development, marked improvement in the tourism service functions of railway facilities and equipment, significantly enhanced operational support capacity for railway tourism, an effectively raised degree of marketization and richer product supply, the following measures are hereby proposed.
I. Accelerate the tourism-oriented upgrading of railway infrastructure
(1) Strengthen the overall coordination between railway and tourism planning. Strengthen planning guidance: the formulation of railway-related plans should take into overall account the needs of tourism development, make proper plans for the layout of stations, and improve the accessibility and convenience of tourism resources. The formulation of tourism-related plans should coordinate the layout and development of cultural tourism resources and railway resources, and promote the integrated and mutually reinforcing development of railways and tourism.
(2) Accelerate the tourism-oriented renovation of stations. Carry out tourism-oriented renovation of stations in tourist destinations where conditions permit, incorporating local distinctive elements and enhancing cultural connotations. Strengthen the construction of tourism support facilities and age-friendly renovations, encourage stations with the appropriate conditions to create dedicated waiting areas for tourists in light of local conditions, set up convenient transfer passages, and add special or temporary parking areas for passenger vehicles.
(3) Actively promote the tourism-oriented renovation of trains. Encourage various types of social capital to participate in investing in the renovation of tourist train equipment and facilities, and develop tourist trains that meet the different scenarios of long- and short-distance travel, the different configuration needs of quality, comfort and affordability, and different themes such as silver-haired, study-tour and wellness travel. Encourage tourist trains to form cross-sector co-branding with well-known IPs and create themed trains and themed carriages in a market-oriented manner. By 2030, build more than 160 dedicated trainsets for railway tourist trains nationwide.
(4) Create diversified tourist special train products. Deepen the market-oriented operation of tourist special trains and encourage tourism enterprises and railway transport enterprises to jointly design tourist special train products. Encourage places with the appropriate conditions to develop themed tourist special trains with regional cultural characteristics and create exclusive calling cards for local tourism. Actively promote the design and development of cross-border tourist special train products such as China–Laos, China–Kazakhstan, China–Vietnam and China–Russia. Study and design tourist special train products suited to inbound tourists to enhance the international competitiveness and influence of railway tourism products.
(5) Develop distinctive tourist dedicated-line products. Fully tap tourism resources along railway lines and design and develop tourist routes reflecting different themes such as natural scenery, climate resources, local features and history and culture. Develop tourist dedicated-line products that operate on fixed routes on a regular basis and are sold mainly in the form of train tickets, strengthen the distinctive renovation of trains and distinctive tourism services, and create tourist dedicated-line products with distinctive local features, sound supporting services and high market recognition.
(This article is compiled from a publicly released article by the Tibet Autonomous Region Department of Culture and Tourism; see the link at the beginning of the text for the original.)