Dalian issues plan for consumption upgrades

The Dalian municipal government recently issued a plan for improving consumption in tourism, culture, sports, health, pensions, education, training and other fields.

Dalian encourages private social capital to develop new tourism products featuring island visits, ice and snow, cultural events, cruises, research, hot springs and health pursuits.

Wafangdian and Zhuanghe, two county-level cities in Dalian, will be developed into "National Regional Tourism Demonstration Areas". The development will guide Wafangdian 's Xietun town to become a boutique tourism town.

The plan encourages the development of characteristic homestays. After visits and examinations, related departments will issue special trade licenses for farmhouses that meet fire safety regulations and accommodation standards.

Farmhouses that comply with specific fire safety regulations will receive a security management information system.

According to the plan, Dalian will also build a global self-driving travel channel. It will study and improve the management system for permitted driving of residential vehicles and handle the registration of resident trailers in accordance with the law.

The city will also implement the nation's policy on the use of land for residential vehicles in camps, promote a high quality channel for self-driving travel, speed up the construction of supporting facilities and services such as self-driving camps, safety rescue, traffic signs, self-driving information service platforms, water and electricity supplies and communications.

In addition, Dalian will promote the development of cruise yacht leisure tourism. Dalian airports will implement a 144-hour visa-free transit policy for some foreigners to achieve air port intermodal transport. They will gradually expand the number of visa-free countries, expand the scope of activities and improve the level of inbound tourism consumption in accordance with regulations.

The plan also proposes to develop "ice and snow + hot spring" tourism, industrial tourism and red tourism and promote the integration of tourism and sports.

It encourages bookstores to develop innovative business models and combine cultural tourism, creative design and other elements into composite cultural venues integrating reading, study, display and communication, public gatherings and creativity. It also encourages the opening of 24-hour bookstores.

In terms of sports consumption, the plan encourages schools with qualified sports facilities in all regions of Dalian to open to the public after class and during holidays.

It encourages enterprises and all kinds of sports resources to open up to the public to meet their fitness needs.

In terms of education and training consumption, it encourages undergraduate colleges to carry out Chinese-foreign cooperative education in subjects required by leading and emerging industries. It also proposes to explore the establishment of a long-term care insurance system.

The plan requires that the approval process should be streamlined, access thresholds for pension service organizations should be reduced, the quality of care services should be improved, the provision of quality products and services suitable for the daily needs of the elderly should be increased and service quality and safety prevention capabilities should be continuously improved.

It encourages foreign investors to establish pension institutions in the city. The non-profit pension institutions can enjoy the same preferential policies as domestic investors.

Dalian will also explore the establishment of a long-term care insurance system and improve supporting financial policies.

It will explore the establishment of a nursing insurance system that is suitable for the city's actual situation. The insurance would cover the basic costs of care for severely disabled people and the cost of medical care that is closely related to basic life.

The city will continue to implement a subsidy system for the elderly who are in financial difficulties and provide subsidies such as new bed allowances and operating subsidies for eligible private non-profit aged care service organizations.

More than 50 percent of lottery public welfare funds that support social welfare projects at the municipal level will be used to support and develop the pension service industry.

Dalian will implement a pre-tax deduction policy for personal income tax on commercial health insurance. By 2020, more than ten TCM health tourism demonstration units will be built to form a comprehensive TCM health tourism service system covering the whole city.