"30-day no-reason return" — Is Sichuan going to crack down on low-cost shopping tours?

The news that Sichuan will gradually implement the "30-day no-reason return" policy for tourism shopping has recently caused a stir across the industry.

According to the Implementation Plan for Promoting High-Quality Development of Tourism Public Services (2026-2030) (hereinafter referred to as the Plan) jointly issued by 9 departments including the Sichuan Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, Sichuan will improve the no-reason return system for tourism commodities and gradually implement the offline "30-day no-reason return" policy for tourism products.

This move means that Sichuan, following Yunnan, has become the second province in China to explicitly include the "30-day no-reason return" for tourism shopping in its provincial-level plan.

However, why did Sichuan choose to promote the "30-day no-reason return" for tourism shopping so high-profilely this year? Because this major tourism province will see its tourism reputation collapse if it does not rectify the "low-cost shopping tour" problems as soon as possible.

01

When it comes to "low-cost shopping tours", many people first think of Yunnan. Few people know that Sichuan, another major domestic tourism province, has no less problems in this regard.

Since 2025, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism has released 10 batches of 141 "typical cases of forced consumption in the tourism market", among which Sichuan and Yunnan are tied with 9 cases each.

It is worth noting that Yunnan was involved in 8 cases last year and only 1 case this year; while Sichuan was involved in 4 cases last year and 5 cases this year, seeing an increase rather than a decrease. Sichuan not only has a large number of selected cases, but also many cases that have caused huge public opinion influence.

In a case disclosed this year, tour guide Fu, assigned by the Wuhou No. 2 Branch of Sichuan China Youth Travel Service Co., Ltd., forced 21 tourists to go shopping during the "5-day Xichang-Lugu Lake Tour", which sparked heated public discussion.

Sichuan also exposed the country's first case of "tour agencies taking shares in shopping venues for dividends". In 2024, the Jialing Branch of Sichuan China Youth Travel Service specially received "2-day Mount Emei-Leshan Tour" groups at a loss-making price of 200 yuan per person, and arranged 2 shopping stores during the trip. The person in charge of the travel agency, Hu, took shares in the shopping stores with "customer resources + capital" and got dividends at a 30% proportion. In September of that year, the shady practice of this travel agency was exposed by the media, triggering public outcry, and relevant personnel were investigated and punished by the authorities.

The regulatory documents previously issued in Chengdu, Sichuan, specifically proposed to crack down on disguised tourism shopping behaviors such as "restaurant in front, store behind; restaurant on upper floor, store on lower floor; store in front, toilet behind", which shows that local "low-cost shopping tour" behaviors are not rare.

02

In May 2025, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism released the first batch of "typical cases of forced consumption in the tourism market" to deter the market. In July, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, together with the Ministry of Public Security and the State Administration for Market Regulation, issued the Notice on Rectifying Forced Shopping and Promoting the Healthy Development of the Tourism Market, deciding to carry out a one-year special rectification campaign to conduct full-chain governance on the forced shopping problems existing in the tourism market.

In the first half of 2026, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism also interviewed provinces with concentrated complaints about forced shopping in tourism, requiring them to strengthen supervision and introduce more substantive measures.

Two major events that broke out this year have further become the catalyst for Sichuan to go all out to rectify "low-cost shopping tours".

In August 2026, CCTV exposed the chaos of hidden shopping, forced consumption and temporary price markup in some group tours in Kunming, Xishuangbanna and other regions in Yunnan through unannounced visits. Once again, this major tourism province became the target of public criticism.

Meanwhile, Beijing issued an urgent notice named the Urgent Notice on Implementing the Requirements of Cultural and Tourism Market Rectification and Strictly Prohibiting the Arrangement of Tourism Shopping Stores at the end of July, requiring that all tourism products involving Beijing must not set up or arrange any designated tourism shopping stores, enclosed specialty experience halls, cultural and tourism exhibition centers, cultural exhibition halls and other disguised shopping business places, and strictly prohibit including all kinds of shopping spots into tourism routes and travel plans. In short, the long-standing stubborn problem of "low-cost shopping tour" has been completely banned in Beijing.

With the lessons of Yunnan in the front and the decisive action of Beijing in the back, Sichuan would rather take the initiative than be passive everywhere.

Sichuan takes the "30-day no-reason return" policy as the breakthrough point to rectify "low-cost shopping tours", which is at least a strategic move of retreating to advance. It is more stable than reckless advancement, more executable than doing nothing, and wins more space for its overall layout.

03

Although Sichuan has become the second province in China to include the "30-day no-reason return" for tourism shopping in the provincial-level plan after Yunnan, the tourism industry generally holds a cautious attitude about whether Sichuan can effectively implement this policy and break the deadlock of "low-cost shopping tours" with it.

Whether Sichuan can fully promote the "30-day no-reason return" for tourism shopping depends on two core factors: does it have the courage to strike hard at the intertwined interests of "low-cost shopping tours"? Can there be strong and sufficiently stable official forces to support the work?

As the editor of TravelDaily analyzed before, although Yunnan took the lead in implementing the "30-day no-reason return" for tourism shopping in China with strong confidence from top to bottom, the implementation of this policy still experienced ups and downs.

The same is true for Sichuan. To completely solve the problem of "low-cost shopping tours", the entire tourism industry in Sichuan is bound to undergo a thorough transformation. Can Sichuan afford the cost of such a transformation after all?

To put it another way, the reason why Yunnan was able to vigorously promote the "30-day no-reason return" for tourism shopping and save the local tourism reputation to a certain extent is largely due to the strong leadership and support of official forces from the provincial, municipal to county levels. No matter how much complaints from all parties, the government spared no effort to push forward the work, and finally achieved certain results.

Can Sichuan achieve this?

04

Sichuan has chosen a relatively cautious strategy when promoting the "30-day no-reason return" for tourism shopping, which can be seen from the fact that the policy is currently only included in the provincial five-year plan.

It is worth noting that the "30-day no-reason return" for tourism shopping has actually been trialed in many areas of Sichuan for a long time.

Four years ago, Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture released the "Guidelines for No-Reason Return for Offline Shopping", which stipulated that tourists can get no-reason returns within 30 days at all shopping places that receive tourist groups. Many tourism shopping stores in Leshan have also publicly promised "30-day no-reason return" under the official guidance.

An industry insider revealed that Sichuan's promotion of the "30-day no-reason return" for tourism shopping at the provincial level this time is also to coordinate and improve the practices that have been carried out across the province, and explore practical experience that can be better implemented in the province.

In the view of the editor of TravelDaily, on the one hand, Sichuan still needs to carry out more practical explorations around the "30-day no-reason return" for tourism shopping to accumulate experience; on the other hand, it also needs to wait for a better opportunity to use the "30-day no-reason return" policy to push the reform to completely eradicate the "low-cost shopping tour" problem.

Why did Beijing dare to completely ban "low-cost shopping tour groups" this year?

First, the tourism industry does not account for a high proportion of Beijing's GDP. It is estimated that by 2029, the added value of the tourism industry in Beijing will account for 5% of the city's total GDP. In other words, even if Beijing carries out drastic reforms on the local tourism industry and completely bans low-cost group tours, the impact on its overall economy is limited.

Second, Beijing's tourism economy has basically completed upgrading and iteration, and low-cost shopping tour groups have fulfilled their historical mission. Beijing's tourism products have fully shifted from "sightseeing check-in" to "cultural experience", and the customer groups are mainly independent travelers, customized groups and small groups, with per capita tourism consumption leading the country.

These two conditions are exactly what Sichuan does not have at present. Therefore, Sichuan needs to wait for its own critical moment. In any case, Sichuan has taken an important step in the upgrading and iteration of its tourism industry. As for the effect, we will wait and see.

This article is from the WeChat official account "TravelDaily", author: Chen Jie tigereat, authorized for release by 36Kr.