China's services gain traction among global consumers

The platform offers multilingual flight searches, online check-in, electronic boarding passes and real-time alerts. It also integrates practical functions including electronic arrival card application, English map navigation, NFC-enabled public transport payments, real-time translation and tax refund location searches.

By covering the entire travel process from arrival to departure, the platform aims to make traveling in China more convenient for international visitors.

"We use digital services to enhance the reputation of 'Chinese services,' helping unlock the potential of inbound consumption and increase the global influence of 'China Travel,'" said Liu Feng, vice-president of Umetrip.

In March, China introduced a package of measures to boost travel service exports and expand inbound consumption. These initiatives include optimizing tax refund services for departing visitors, launching multilingual versions of lifestyle service applications, and further streamlining visa procedures to enhance foreign tourists' consumption experience in China.

Foreign residents in China have also witnessed firsthand the rapid upgrading of the country's service consumption.

Ivan Monich, a Russian teacher at Tianjin Foreign Studies University who has lived in China for many years, described the convenience brought by digital services as part of "the comfort of life in China."

In his view, mobile applications that combine navigation, real-time traffic information and ride-hailing services have made travel much easier. "Everything I need is right there in one app," Monich said.

Wang Yiming, former vice-president of the Development Research Center of the State Council, said that China's 15th five-year plan (2026-30) for expanding consumption emphasizes "orderly relaxing control over market access in the service sector and optimizing the market access environment for new business forms and new sectors," creating favorable conditions for the development of China's service consumption.

Liu Xiaolong, global partner of US-based management consulting firm Kearney Management Consultants, said that as China's service consumption continues to move toward higher quality and more experience-oriented offerings, the country will become an important market for global service enterprises.

China is also expected to provide new ideas and opportunities for the global service consumption sector through innovations in cultural intellectual property, consumption models and other areas, Liu said.