Diplomas, marriage certificates, and performance tickets have been turned into discounts for restaurants and hotels. The World Games (TWG) 2025 Chengdu has become the "traffic secret" for sports events and shopping tourism. The status of newly-enrolled students in Sichuan's higher-education institutions now serves as a preferential "pass" for consumption at bookstores and museums, as well as for purchasing 3C digital products. This summer, the consumption scenarios in Sichuan have been comprehensively upgraded, with bustling popularity, thriving consumption, and dynamic vitality across the region.
In the first seven months of this year, the province witnessed a 5.6-percent year-on-year rise in retail sales of consumer goods and ranked fifth among the top ten provinces and cities in the country in terms of economic output. Simultaneously, Sichuan's commercial system targeted policies, events, and scenarios to drive growth, achieving a rapid year-on-year increase of 5.6 percent in July alone.
Link up for Targeted Policy Implementation and "Pamper" Consumers in Multiple Fields
The summer vacation is the peak season for students' demand to purchase 3C digital products such as mobile phones, tablets, and smartwatches (wristbands). The national subsidy program for 3C products, a highly sought-after sector where snagging a deal often requires quick reflexes, has perfectly met students' demand for new purchases.
"We have optimized and adjusted the usage direction of the provincial financial funds for the consumer goods trade-in program. Since July, we have focused on supporting the concentrated demand for 3C digital product trade-ins from the student population," introduced a relevant leading official from the Department of Commerce. Through "government subsidies + platform discounts + merchant promotions", consumers can enjoy more benefits, according to the official.
In fact, this policy is not limited to the student group but benefits all consumers.
"As soon as the summer vacation began, we received the national subsidy coupon for 3C digital products," said Chen Yiran, a Chengdu resident. He added that on the night of getting the coupon, he and his family went to an offline store to purchase the latest sports watch. After combining the merchant's discount with the national subsidy, they saved approximately 100 to 200 yuan. Data shows that in July alone, province-wide consumption of communication equipment such as mobile phones increased by 103 percent year-on-year, indicating an accelerated release of demand for new purchases.
To "pamper" the consumer groups to the extreme, Sichuan has more measures than this. According to the official from the Provincial Department of Commerce, in view of the peak summer consumption season, Sichuan has especially optimized and adjusted its existing fund use strategy, introduced consumption promotion policies and measures through multi-sector coordination, and built a multi-level consumption promotion system, ensuring consumers spend comfortably and to their fullest satisfaction.
In late August, provincial departments, including the Department of Commerce, the Department of Education, the Department of Finance, and the Department of Culture and Tourism, jointly launched the 2025 Opening Semester Gift Package Program for Sichuan College Freshmen. They actively urged all cities (prefectures) to integrate resources of scenic spots, museums, cinemas, bookstores, and pedestrian street business districts. Exclusive preferential discounts and combined "one-stop" preferential package tickets were offered to newly-enrolled students in provincial colleges and universities and their direct relatives (including freshmen in junior colleges, undergraduate programs, and postgraduate studies). This covers the consumption needs of students and their families in aspects such as summer travel, study, and entertainment, and is expected to benefit over one million students.
"At the start of the new semester, distributing exclusive gift packages to freshmen can create a good atmosphere of treating talents with courtesy, so as to attract more outstanding young people to come to Sichuan, love the place, and settle in the region. At the same time, the various coupons prepared in the packages also bring tangible benefits to the freshmen," an industry insider opined.
Innovative Event Consumption: TWG Economy Sets the Whole Summer Ablaze
This summer, Sichuan undoubtedly became the "top stream" of popularity. From August 7 to 17, with TWG in full swing, global attention was focused here.
This year's TWG, being the largest in scale with the highest number of participants in its history, has generated a huge volume of event-related traffic, creating an excellent opportunity for Sichuan to stimulate summer consumption. "The market development revenue of this edition of TWG has set a historic high." On August 14, the Executive Committee of TWG 2025 Chengdu announced: 48 enterprises launched over 500 licensed products spanning 16 major categories, and 218 offline retail points were established, with some limited-edition badges "selling out immediately upon release".
This directly reflects the event's stimulating effect on consumption. On the one hand, a large number of athletes, event-related personnel, and spectators flocked in, directly driving consumption in related sectors such as tourism, catering, accommodation, and shopping across the province from the demand side. On the other hand, various departments in Sichuan, such as commerce, culture and tourism, and sports, coordinated and linked up, closely seized the TWG opportunity and the summer cultural and tourism consumption hotspots, and innovatively carried out consumption-promoting activities integrating commerce, culture, tourism and sports, constantly stimulating and creating new consumption needs from the supply side.
On the evening of August 4, the "Tianfu Souvenir" - Sichuan Featured Products Exhibition Hall, located in TWG Village Zone A, made its debut. More than 200 high-quality products with Sichuan's characteristics, including intangible cultural heritage (ICH) themed cultural and creative products, time-honored brands, geographical indications, and intelligent manufacturing products, were presented, showcasing the "Made in Sichuan" label imbued with profound historical and cultural heritage and exquisite craftsmanship to the event-related personnel from all over the world.
"During its operation, the exhibition hall became a viral check-in spot for athletes. Constantly, athletes used simple Chinese combined with gestures to browse and purchase products," a sales staff member shared, adding that some items were so popular they sold out almost immediately. Statistics show that the hall received more than 10,000 visits by foreign athletes and event volunteers during its opening period.
To attract athletes, coaches, and friends from around the world who had traveled from afar to explore the streets and alleys of Sichuan, the province's commercial system simultaneously released premium consumption route maps covering five popular cities—Chengdu, Meishan, Ziyang, Deyang, and Mianyang. It also coordinated with multiple departments to deploy 574 departure tax-refund stores and 156 "refund-upon-purchase" stores in core business districts and tourist attractions.
In addition, a series of featured themed activities, such as the "Cool off in Summer, Shopping in Ba-Shu" consumption promotion campaign and the "Enjoying Tianfu" service consumption season, which were jointly held across Sichuan, have maximally exerted TWG's role in gathering and driving the flow of people and goods, thus thoroughly converting the "event-related traffic" into "consumption increment".
Data shows that during the event period, TWG 2025 Chengdu ticket revenue exceeded 17 million yuan, while sales revenue from over 500 licensed products reached 80 million yuan. Chengdu hosted over 4.1 million domestic tourist arrivals and 72,000 inbound tourist arrivals, representing year-on-year growth of 5 percent and 65 percent, respectively. The city's offline consumption totaled 50.33 billion yuan, with commercial district foot traffic hitting 34.816 million visits, a year-on-year increase of 6.6 percent. Notably, overseas visitor traffic grew by 10 percent.
"The event is not only an arena of competition but has also become a consumption hub. TWG Economy is now pulling consumption through diverse forms," said Jacky Zhu, Head of Retail Research at Jones Lang LaSalle (China). In his view, the event economy effectively connects front-end sports competitions with broad new consumption scenarios and content in the back end, enabling synergistic and extended consumer spending. In response, Sichuan is accelerating its exploration of an innovative path for the deep integration of commerce, culture, tourism, and sports.
Create New Scenarios to Expand Incremental Growth within the Unified Market Model
Through initiatives like "Delightful Nighttime Cuisine", "Joyful Travel Integration", Sichuan's ease and laid-back charm found its ultimate expression this summer in a celebration of delight and joy.
On the evening of July 18, the cheerful performance of live bands at the Guangyuan International Convention and Exhibition Center ignited the passion of the nighttime economy. This is a summer beer festival that Guangyuan has meticulously prepared. In just ten days, the beer festival attracted more than 160,000 person-times participation. While boosting the summer economy, it also fueled a unique hustle-and-bustle atmosphere in the city.
With the theme of "Delightful Nighttime Cuisine", various places in Sichuan have combined characteristic cuisine with urban blocks to successively host more than 1,000 consumption promotion activities in the past two months. Simultaneously, a list of internet-famous check-in restaurants was released, aiming to further activate nighttime consumption potential through innovative characteristic dining experiences.
As a representative point of the "Joyful Travel Integration" initiative, the Night Tour of the Jinjiang River project in Chengdu has been renovated and upgraded. It fully integrates river landscape modeling with ICH performances, light and shadow shows, cultural and creative product sales, and other programs. Furthermore, it also launched sports scenarios such as a well-lit basketball court and the "second live venue" of the Chinese Super League, bringing a brand-new interactive experience. "Cruising on the river to enjoy the night view in the urban area is so romantic," exclaimed Dulutaia, a Spanish tourist, adding that this experience was extremely memorable. It is learned that to facilitate foreign tourists, the Night Tour of Jinjiang River project, leveraging a third-party platform, offers 24 language versions and has customized ticketing pages in five languages, namely Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean and Thai. Additionally, multiple international payment methods have been enabled.
While enticing consumers to "step in", Sichuan also spurs them to "venture out" and take an impromptu journey.
Recently, over 460 passengers took the "Panda Express · Shifang" silver-haired tourist train, departing from Chengdu and making their way to the northeast. When the train arrived at Yichun Station in Heilongjiang, performers wearing Hezhen ethnic attire boarded the train, playing the kouxian (jaw harp) and dancing traditional dances to welcome guests from afar. This special train tourism product, positioned as an in-depth tour with immersive experiences, will also regularly stage characteristic performances like Sichuan opera face-changing, bartending, ethnic song and dance, and tea art during the journey, apart from routine services. Additionally, interactive activities such as ICH handicraft workshops, travel photography salons, star-ceiling KTVs, and audio-visual theaters are also available.
In recent years, tourist trains have gradually gained popularity, particularly favored by silver-haired travelers. In late July, Sichuan officially launched the Action Plan for Enhancing Silver-Haired Tourist Trains and Promoting Service Consumption Development, accelerating efforts to improve the service capacity of "Panda Tourist Trains" and optimize consumption scenarios. A relevant official from the Provincial Department of Commerce announced that the "Panda Express" brand currently comprises three trains: "Chengdu", "An Yi", and "Shifang", while the "Splendid Landscapes" brand includes the "Minjiang". Over the next three years, an additional ten "Splendid Landscapes" trains will be added to the fleet. "Currently, Sichuan is leveraging its abundant integrated resources in agriculture, commerce, culture, tourism, sports, and wellness, along with the seasonal and cultural differences across the province's five major economic zones to bring Ba-Shu culture onto tourist trains, in a bid to cultivate new engines for economic growth."
"The emerging new consumption scenarios are not only injecting critical momentum into expanding domestic demand and providing consumers with diverse options like multi-faceted shopping and outdoor experiences, but are also giving rise to emerging sectors at the industrial level, accelerating the optimization and upgrading of the industrial structure, and reshaping the landscape of the consumer market," said Jacky Zhu.
As the "golden September and silver October" period approaches, Sichuan's consumer market is receiving a series of positive developments. Diverse events will be held in rapid succession, including the 4th China (Sichuan) International Panda Consumption Festival, the Chengdu-Chongqing Consumption Festival, and the Sichuan-Chongqing Time-Honored Brand Carnival. Driven by the powerful campaign of "Mobilizing Thousands of Enterprises, Direct Benefits from Tens of Thousands of Stores, and Direct Delivery of Hundreds of Millions in Profits", these initiatives will continuously transform the peak season effect into a long-tail effect.
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