Latest! Eight departments jointly issue document to support railway + elderly health care!

Notice of the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. and Other 8 Units on Issuing Several Measures to Promote the Integration of Railway and Tourism Development and Expand Service Consumption

Shang Fu Mao Han [2026] No. 118

In order to thoroughly implement General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important instructions on the development of the service industry, implement the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee and the State Council on accelerating the construction of a transportation power, a tourism power, and developing service consumption, further expand new supply of railway tourism, innovate diversified consumption scenarios, and promote the formation of a new situation of deep integration of railway and tourism development, by 2030 achieving significant results in the integration of railway and tourism, obvious improvement of tourism service functions of railway facilities and equipment, significant enhancement of railway tourism operation guarantee capabilities, effective improvement of marketization, and richer product supply, the following measures are proposed.

I. Accelerate the Tourism-Oriented Renovation of Railway Infrastructure

(1) Strengthen the overall coordination of railway and tourism planning. Strengthen planning guidance, and when preparing railway-related plans, the development needs of tourism should be coordinated, station site planning and layout should be optimized, and the accessibility and convenience of tourism resources should be improved. When preparing tourism-related plans, the coordinated layout and development of cultural tourism resources and railway resources should be coordinated to promote the integrated development of railway and tourism.

(2) Accelerate the implementation of station tourism-oriented renovation. In places where conditions permit, implement tourism-oriented renovation of tourist destination stations, incorporating local characteristic elements to enhance cultural connotations.Strengthen the construction of tourism supporting facilities and aging-friendly renovation,Encourage stations with conditions to create exclusive waiting areas for tourists according to local conditions, set up convenient transfer passages, and add dedicated parking areas 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 the investment in the renovation of facilities and equipment for tourist trains.Develop tourist trains that meet different scenarios of long and short distance travel, different configuration needs of quality, comfort, and affordability, and different themes such as silver economy, study tours, and health and wellness.Encourage cross-border co-branding between tourist trains and well-known IPs, and create themed trains and themed carriages in a market-oriented way. By 2030, build more than 160 dedicated railway tourist train units nationwide.

II. Enrich the Railway Tourism Product System

(4) Create diversified special tourist train products. Deepen the market-oriented operation of special tourist trains, and encourage tourism enterprises to jointly design special tourist train products with railway transport enterprises. Encourage places with conditions to develop themed special tourist trains with regional cultural characteristics to create exclusive tourism business cards for local destinations. Actively promote the design and development of cross-border special tourist train products such as China-Laos, China-Kazakhstan, China-Vietnam, and China-Russia. Research and design special tourist train products suitable for inbound tourists to enhance the international competitiveness and influence of railway tourism products.

(5) Develop characteristic tourist special line products. Fully tap the tourism resources along the railway line, and design and develop tourist routes with different themes such as natural scenery, climate resources, local features, and historical culture. Develop tourist special line products with fixed routes, regular operation, and tickets as the main sales form, strengthen the characteristic renovation of trains and characteristic tourism services, and create tourist special line products with distinctive local features, complete supporting services, and high market recognition.

(6) Vigorously develop tourism ticket-based products. Support local governments and railway transport enterprises to integrate tourism resources such as scenic spots, accommodation, catering, and sports events, and railway, highway, and waterway route resources, explore the introduction of regional intermodal transport products, and jointly design new railway ticket-based products. Strengthen the ticket stub economy, and drive chain consumption of business, travel, culture, sports, and health around railway ticket-based products.

(7) Launch railway culture characteristic tourism products. Fully tap the value of modern industrial resources such as EMU production and maintenance bases to create railway industrial tourism products. Encourage the use of scrapped railway carriages, containers, etc. to create new consumption scenarios such as train-themed specialty restaurants and hotels. Vigorously tap railway cultural resources, fully revitalize and utilize railway stations and railway museums with historical, cultural, and landscape value, develop railway-themed tourism routes and cultural and creative products, and tell the story of Chinese railways.

III. Improve Railway Tourism Service Level

(8) Improve station services. Encourage local governments and railway departments to cooperate to leverage local cultural and tourism resource advantages, and improve the diversified service functions of stations and surrounding areas around food, accommodation, travel, sightseeing, shopping, and entertainment. Strengthen connections between railways and urban public transport, customized passenger transport, and scenic area shuttle buses, and open up the ‘first mile’ and ‘last mile’ between stations and scenic spots.

(9) Improve tourist train services. Improve tourist train service and management standards, support brand catering and local specialty foods on trains,Encourage tourist trains to develop specialty themed meals such as senior meals and parent-child meals.Support the boarding of artistic performances, intangible cultural heritage experiences, cultural and creative products, and ‘time-honored brand’ products on trains to enrich in-transit service supply. Explore the optimization of sports equipment transportation, luggage custody and delivery, and pet transportation services, strengthen the connection and transition between station services and services outside the station, and improve the overall tourism service experience. Continuously promote the continuous coverage of mobile network signals in scenarios such as high-speed railway networks and key passenger general-speed railways.

(10) Strengthen information services. Promote the interconnection and intercommunication of cultural tourism information and railway information services, improve the tourism service function of the ‘Railway 12306’ platform, and provide tourists with one-stop travel services such as itinerary planning, travel information, scenic spot recommendations, ticket booking, transportation connections, and hotel reservations.

IV. Strengthen Railway Tourism Operation Guarantee

(11) Enhance transportation capacity support. Maximize the transportation potential of the railway network, coordinate the passenger and freight transport capacity of lines with tight capacity, and ensure the demand for tourist train operations. Strengthen transport capacity guarantee for tourist directions, increase tourist train operations on popular directions, and cultivate tourist passenger flow on emerging directions.

(12) Optimize ticket services. Optimize group ticket booking rules and processes, improve the group tourism internet service function, solve the bottleneck problems of group ticket handling, and provide one-stop service guarantee. Formulate differentiated pricing strategies, introduce gradient discount fare policies, and stimulate more tourism consumption potential.

(13) Strengthen data application. Explore the establishment of a railway tourism big data system, strengthen monitoring, forecasting, and analysis of railway tourism passenger flow, and support the design, development, marketing, and operation management of railway tourism products. Improve the data sharing mechanism between railways and other transportation means as well as cross-departmental data sharing with tourism, sports, meteorology, etc., and use technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence to improve the collaborative governance capability of railway tourism.

V. Strengthen Policy Support

(14) Strengthen fiscal and financial support. Coordinate the use of relevant funding channels to support key directions such as tourism-oriented renovation of railway stations and construction of tourism service facilities. Encourage places with conditions to introduce subsidy and reward policies for tourist trains under the premise of implementing relevant requirements for standardized management of fiscal subsidies, and guide various types of social capital to participate in the development and operation of railway tourism products in accordance with laws and regulations. Promote the construction of pilot cities for new consumption formats, new models, and new scenarios, and create new scenarios for the integrated development of railway and tourism. Encourage financial institutions to provide financing support for technological transformation and equipment renewal of tourist trains in accordance with market-based and law-based principles.

(15) Support the expansion of market space. Accelerate the opening of the railway tourism market and broaden the application channels for tourist train operations. Support the enhancement of publicity and promotion through various levels of multilateral and bilateral exchange mechanisms, overseas tourism promotion activities, and large exhibitions. Create the brand ‘Iron Tourism Integration, Happy Tour China’ to expand the popularity and influence of railway tourism.

Ministry of Commerce

Ministry of Culture and Tourism

China State Railway Group Co., Ltd.

National Development and Reform Commission

Ministry of Finance

Ministry of Transport

People’s Bank of China

National Railway Administration

June 2, 2026

Source: Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China

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Latest! Eight departments jointly issue document to support railway + elderly health care!

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