I'm here today to collect stamps and also to see where else I can go during the summer vacation. "On June 21st, the 2025 Beijing International Cultural and Tourism Consumption Expo was crowded with people, and a college student showed the reporter a notebook filled with cultural and creative stamps from different provinces across the country. During this expo, the exhibition booths were crowded with tourists who either tasted specialty cuisine or learned about unique travel routes. Activities such as stamp ins, puppet parades, and themed performances brought them a full sense of experience. In fact, the summer economy across the country has shown full "heat" power. In Xuyi, Jiangsu, the 25th Xuyi Lobster Festival opened on June 12th, attracting a continuous stream of tourists to eat crayfish in Xuyi; At Guilin Rongchuang International Tourism Resort, tourists can enjoy popular attractions such as jungle spinning, raft expeditions, and Guilin Eye Ferris Wheel; In Changsha, climbing Yuelu Mountain at night and admiring the beauty of Orange Island at night have become a new way for summer tourists to check-in; In the miracle of hot snow in Guangzhou, Lingnan people not only have lychees to escape the heat, but also can step on snow trails and experience summer ice and snow tourism. Experts interviewed by reporters generally believe that we should seize the summer consumption window, increase policy efforts, continuously innovate consumption scenarios, improve service consumption quality, and promote high-quality economic development. In recent years, consumption has become the main engine of China's economic growth, with the market size ranking second in the world. ”Li Yunze, Director of the State Administration of Financial Supervision and Administration, introduced at the opening ceremony of the 2025 Lujiazui Forum that with the implementation of the strategy of expanding domestic demand and the "investment in people" policy, residents' income has steadily increased, and people's livelihood security has been continuously strengthened. China is accelerating to become the world's largest consumer market. The latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that from January to May this year, the retail sales of services increased by 5.2% year-on-year, with a growth rate 0.1 percentage points faster than that from January to April and 0.1 percentage points higher than the growth rate of retail sales of goods during the same period. At the same time, with the expansion and upgrading of consumer demand, the characteristics of quality, personalization, and diversification are particularly prominent, and consumers are shifting from "meeting basic needs" to "pursuing quality of life". In addition to basic consumption such as catering and accommodation, household services, and elderly care, improved service consumption such as cultural and entertainment consumption, tourism consumption, and sports consumption are unleashing unprecedented vitality. In terms of cultural and entertainment consumption, "emotional consumption" has become a new hotspot. Many young people are willing to embark on a spontaneous trip for a concert or music festival; In the live broadcast room, scarce blind box toys such as LABUBU are being snapped up by consumers; On e-commerce platforms, virtual products such as silicone "Pinche Le" that can relieve stress and "Einstein's Brain" priced at 0.5 yuan are popular among young people. In terms of tourism consumption, listed companies actively promote the sales of summer travel products. According to retail data from Zhongxin Tourism Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhongxin Tourism"), as of now, the number of summer trips in 2025 has increased by 70% compared to the same period last year, and the summer GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume) has increased by about 80% compared to the same period last year. Among them, the proportion of parent-child customers is expected to exceed 60%, becoming the main force of summer consumption. Minority destinations are favored by tourists. Li Jinfei, Vice President and Head of Hotel Travel at Meituan, told Securities Daily reporters that since the beginning of this year, among the top tourist destinations with the highest growth rate of out of town tourists, niche tourist destinations in third tier and below cities account for as much as 80%. The attention to destinations in counties such as Danzhou and Altay has surged. In the scenario of long-distance travel, the proportion of users under 30 years old reaches 44%, and their demand for cultural tourism is more diversified. Young consumers are willing to go further, with a demand growth rate of over 15% for "medium to long distance travel" over 300 kilometers. The improvement of service supply capacity has led to the emergence of new consumer formats. With the increasing demand for residents' consumption, compound consumption scenarios such as "night tours+", "performing arts+", and "sports+" continue to emerge, promoting the extension of the consumption chain and value enhancement. Expanding the integration of business travel, culture, and sports consumption has become a key direction for the development of service consumption in various regions. On April 30th, the General Office of the People's Government of Guangdong Province issued the "Implementation Plan for the Special Action to Boost Consumption in Guangdong Province", proposing to continue to carry out the Guangdong Cultural and Tourism Consumption Seasonal Subsidy Activity, and hold cultural and tourism promotion activities such as "Travel with Events", "Travel with Film and Television", "Travel with Food", etc. The popularity of "Su Chao" has also made "sports+cultural tourism" a lever for developing new consumption scenarios in many places. In June, the Department of Culture and Tourism of Liaoning Province and other departments released the "Several Measures to Boost Consumption through the Integration of Culture, Sports and Tourism in Liaoning Province", which proposed that for hosting professional sports events, based on project categories, commercial value, etc., after evaluation, a subsidy of 300000 to 3 million yuan will be given for the event, with an additional subsidy of 1 million yuan for the "first event". During the summer, many places combine local resource endowments to create distinctive cultural and tourism integration scenes and launch differentiated tourism experiences. "At present, young people's attention to health care has increased significantly. We have launched experience activities such as grinding traditional Chinese medicine, making sachets, and customizing herbal tea formulas, which have attracted many college students to study, travel, and experience the culture of traditional Chinese medicine." Zhang Shuai, the person in charge of investment attraction in the living room of Bozhou Health Club, told reporters that they are actively developing "Tonic Diet+cultural tourism", "industry+research" while developing new Chinese tea drinks to attract young consumers, combining local medicinal resources and traditional Chinese medicine culture. In the new consumption situation, policies and enterprises should not only seize the opportunity of summer vacation, fully tap the huge potential of traditional summer consumption models such as summer tourism and night economy, but also seize the explosive growth window of new economic formats such as study tours, cruise tours, and emotional economy, integrate them with traditional consumption models, vigorously develop compound consumption scenarios, promote continuous innovation of service consumption, and enhance consumers' experience. ”Professor Bai Yanfeng from the School of Finance and Economics at Central University of Finance and Economics believes that. Multiple parties work together to optimize the environment and promote the growth of service consumption. Compared to the already mature commodity consumption market, there are still some weak links in the current service consumption market. What measures should be taken to further promote the growth of the service consumption market? In the view of Luo Zhiheng, Chief Economist and Dean of the Research Institute at Yuekai Securities, firstly, the supply side structural reform of service consumption is urgently needed. Luo Zhiheng believes that the characteristics of service consumption are mainly reflected in four aspects: high income elasticity, synchronous supply and demand, significant economies of scale and agglomeration effects, difficulty in standardized replication, and long-distance transportation. Therefore, it is necessary to start from four aspects: more stable income growth support, more leisure time, more concentrated population and more family oriented consumption scenarios, and stronger supply capacity. Secondly, the policy environment for service consumption also needs to be further optimized. The standardized service system of the tourism and accommodation industry needs to be improved, and the ability to provide personalized and refined services is insufficient. The supply of high-quality vacation products, cultural experience products, health tourism products and other segmented markets is relatively weak, and homogeneous competition is fierce, making it difficult to match the demand for consumer upgrading. "Luo Zhiheng suggested optimizing the policy environment for service consumption and service industry development, opening up market access and strengthening supervision for cultural tourism, medical care, elderly care, education and other service industries, promoting the survival of the fittest, and providing better services for consumers. In addition, more financial support should be provided for service consumption. This has become a consensus among the interviewed experts. On May 9 this year, the People's Bank of China issued the Notice on the Establishment of Service Consumption and Old age Re loan, which mentioned that the establishment of 500 billion yuan service consumption and old age re loan would encourage and guide financial institutions to increase financial support for key areas of service consumption and the elderly care industry, such as accommodation, entertainment, education, etc. Unlike the manufacturing industry, the production and consumption of service consumption related industries occur synchronously. Financial institutions need to embed financial services into service consumption scenarios, provide innovative financial services such as payment settlement and consumer credit around different scenarios of service consumption, and continuously improve customer acquisition capabilities and customer stickiness. ”According to Liang Jing, a researcher at the Bank of China Research Institute. Strengthen credit support for the service consumption sector. ”Lian Ping, Chief Economist of Guangkai Chief Industry Research Institute, suggests that every 1% increase in the balance of consumer loans will drive more than 200 billion yuan in new credit. With the continuous increase in the proportion of residents' service consumption expenditure, commercial banks can innovate products in the service consumption field, moderately expand the scale of residents' consumption loans, reduce consumption loan interest rates, and extend repayment cycles based on their own situation and in compliance with regulatory requirements. In the capital market, consumer themed funds and consumer REITs have become important sources of funding to support the growth of service consumption. According to Wind data, as of June 22 this year, a total of 9 consumer REITs have gone public, with a total initial fundraising of 22.9061 billion yuan. Furthermore, the overall performance of the underlying assets of the 9 consumer REITs is stable, with most projects achieving positive operating income and distributable amounts. Some projects also benefit from the peak consumption season effects brought by holidays and promotional activities, with rental income and operational efficiency improving. Looking ahead, service consumption is expected to further drive consumption growth. The research team of Goldman Sachs released a report in early June stating that recent policy measures have shifted towards boosting service consumption. Service consumption accounts for only 46% of household consumption in China, which is indeed lower than the proportion of about 60% in developed countries. The high potential growth point in the future consumer sector may lie in service consumption. (New Society)