With the continuous expansion of visa-free policies and the rollout of departure tax refund version 2.0, inbound consumption has continued to rise. In the first half of this year Shanghai received 5.3149 million inbound tourists, up 27.82% year on year. Jing'an District, a core carrier of Shanghai as an international consumption center city, accounted for nearly half of the city's departure tax refund sales. By the end of July, Jing'an had over 800 registered refund stores and a regional instant-refund network of 10 citywide refund points, 3 centralized refund points and numerous single-store points, having issued over 90,000 refund applications (up 1.6 times) with refund sales exceeding 1.6 billion yuan (up 45%). A RT-Mart store became the city's first supermarket to offer instant departure tax refunds and will work with Bank of China to introduce unmanned self-service refund machines, making refunds easier for foreign visitors.
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Shanghai Departure Tax Refund Goes Digital: Self-Service Terminals Enable 'Smart Instant Processing', Cutting Refund Time by 60%
With visa-free policy expansion and the rollout of departure tax refund version 2.0, inbound consumption in Shanghai continues to heat up. In the first half of the year Shanghai received 5.3149 million overseas visitors, up 27.82% year on year, with Jing'an District accounting for nearly half of the city's departure tax refund sales. Shanghai built a network of 10 citywide refund points, 3 centralized refund points and numerous single-store points, issuing over 90,000 refund applications. Plaza 66 launched the city's first self-service terminal instant refund, moving from manual processing to 'smart instant processing' and cutting average refund time by more than 60%. A RT-Mart store will also introduce unmanned self-service refund machines, further improving convenience for overseas travelers.
2026-10-08