This provincial capital in Northeast China is set to foster new pillar industries

Recently, the Outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan of Shenyang City was officially issued. It proposes to promote the in - depth integration of culture, tourism, sports, and business, transform the cultural and tourism industry into a pillar industry, a livelihood industry, and a happiness industry, and accelerate the construction of a city with strong culture, tourism, and sports.

According to the plan, Shenyang will increase the supply of high - quality tourism products and services, comprehensively improve the internationalization level and service capacity of tourism, promote the city IP of "Shenyang, My Heart's Desire", and build a world - famous tourist destination city. By 2030, the annual number of tourist arrivals is expected to reach 300 million.

Meanwhile, it is necessary to adhere to using culture to shape tourism and using tourism to highlight culture, promote the in - depth integration of culture, tourism, sports, and business, continuously enhance Shenyang's cultural influence, tourism attractiveness, sports competitiveness, and urban consumption power, and build an agglomeration area for the integrated development of culture, tourism, sports, and business.

Not long ago, the Secretary of the Liaoning Provincial Party Committee conducted a special research in the Fangcheng Cultural and Tourism Area and Zhongjie in Shenyang, sending a clear signal to promote the development of the cultural and tourism industry and improve the quality of service consumption.

In the impression of many people, as an old industrial city, Shenyang is most commonly labeled as "the eldest son of the Republic", "an industrial hub", "a major national heavy - duty equipment" and so on. It seems difficult to associate it with the image of a "tourist city".

An intuitive comparison is that in 2019, Shenyang's tourism revenue was only 87.5 billion yuan, only half of that of Dalian. Among major cities in the country during the same period, Beijing ranked first in tourism revenue, reaching the level of 600 billion yuan; Shanghai and Chongqing were at the level of 500 billion yuan; cities like Chengdu, Guangzhou, and Hangzhou were at the level of 400 billion yuan; Wuhan, Xi'an and others were at the level of 300 billion yuan.

However, Shenyang's "progress" has been obvious in the past few years.

The year 2023 is regarded as the "first year of Shenyang's promotion as a tourist city". With the outbreak of the "revenge travel" demand, during the New Year's Day, Shenyang received a huge influx of tourists. The number of tourism orders on the first day increased by 135% year - on - year, among which hotel orders increased by 342% and ticket orders increased by 238%.

In June of that year, Shenyang held a conference on the revitalization and development of the cultural and tourism industry and released the "Three - year 'Doubling' Action Plan for Shenyang's Tourism Industry (2023 - 2025)", clarifying the goal of doubling tourism revenue and the number of tourists in three years. This means that by 2025, Shenyang's tourism revenue should reach 170 - 180 billion yuan, with an average annual increase of about 28%.

According to media reports at that time, "This put a lot of pressure on Shenyang's cultural and tourism department, because for a non - tourist city, this goal was too big and difficult to achieve."

However, in the end, Shenyang achieved the "doubling" goal one year ahead of schedule. In 2024, the number of tourist arrivals exceeded 200 million for the first time, and the tourism expenditure exceeded 200 billion yuan. In 2025, the number of tourist arrivals in Shenyang further exceeded 230 million, and the total tourism expenditure exceeded 240 billion yuan.

According to the "Implementation Plan for Further Cultivating New Growth Points and Boosting Cultural, Sports, and Tourism Consumption in Shenyang" issued last year, by 2030, the added value of Shenyang's cultural, sports, and tourism industries and related industries should account for more than 13% of GDP, and the cultural, sports, and tourism industries will become the city's strategic pillar industries.

However, some previous analyses pointed out that although Shenyang has rich cultural and tourism resources, it still lacks "super IPs with wide - ranging influence" on a national scale.

Previously, the Secretary of the Liaoning Provincial Party Committee also pointed out during the research that it is necessary to build a brand matrix for Liaoning's cultural and tourism industry, make overall plans, coordinate and cooperate, excavate and integrate high - quality resources such as historical culture and natural ecology, create high - quality tourist routes, build high - quality characteristic blocks and cultural and tourism landmarks, and cultivate more recognizable and reputable cultural and tourism IPs.

At the same time, it is necessary to expand diversified cultural and tourism consumption, develop red tourism, industrial tourism, health tourism, marine tourism, and ice - snow tourism according to local conditions, continuously enrich the supply of products such as in - depth experience and leisure vacations, and better meet the multi - level consumption needs.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Urban Evolution Theory", author: Liu Yanmei, published by 36Kr with authorization.