Chinese regions roll out targeted policies to tap high-potential silver economy market

Multiple local governments across China are stepping up policy support for health and residential tourism sectors this year, launching targeted financial and institutional incentives to attract elderly consumers and unlock the potential of the booming silver economy. Jilin province plans to allocate special fiscal funds of 100 million yuan annually for three consecutive years starting from 2027, leveraging the ecological resources of the Changbai Mountains to build dual-purpose residential destinations for summer cooling and winter ice-snow leisure. Hainan province has unveiled 18 targeted measures to upgrade seasonal elderly residential tourism into a provincial-level strategic industry. Yunnan province has established a systematic policy framework for residential elderly tourism via positive and negative industrial lists and guaranteed land supply mechanisms to standardise and support sector development.

The intensive policy layout reflects widespread local participation in the expansion of China’s trillion-yuan silver economy. Official demographic data shows China’s population aged 60 and above reached 320 million by the end of 2025, accounting for 23 per cent of the total national population. According to the Silver Economy Blue Paper, the market scale of China’s silver economy will expand to 30 trillion yuan by 2035. Elderly consumer groups are releasing robust self-oriented consumption vitality. State Taxation Administration statistics record double-digit revenue growth in elderly tourism, sports health and cultural entertainment sectors in the first half of 2025.

Regional policy layouts carry distinct local economic adjustment purposes. Provinces including Jilin are activating idle residential properties and underutilised public resources through residential elderly consumption to offset domestic demand gaps caused by youth population outflow. Hainan and Yunnan aim to transform seasonal floating elderly passenger flows into stable pillar industries for local economic growth. The core logic of regional industrial competition lies in attracting high-quality elderly consumer groups with stable pension income and continuous spending capacity to cultivate new growth drivers for regional economic development.

Policy prosperity has not yet translated into mature industrial development. Data released at the 2026 Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference shows the demand proportion for seasonal elderly residential tourism stands at 15.2 per cent, while the actual consumption conversion rate remains merely 7.5 per cent. The low conversion rate stems from severe mismatch between market supply and actual consumer demand. Long-term cross-region elderly residence differs from short-term sightseeing tourism, relying heavily on complete daily living facilities, chronic disease management services, emergency medical treatment support and cross-provincial medical insurance settlement mechanisms rather than basic commercial supporting facilities.

Local authorities are abandoning extensive investment promotion models and shifting towards refined industrial operation and institutional innovation to resolve supply-demand mismatch and homogenised competition risks. Regional administrations are advancing differentiated industrial positioning and building dynamic evaluation and exit mechanisms to eliminate unqualified elderly health and residential projects and prevent fiscal subsidy funds from inducing industrial bubble risks. Optimised market supervision systems are being implemented nationwide. Against the backdrop of past illegal investment fraud cases targeting elderly consumers, Hainan, Jilin and other regions have explicitly introduced regulatory rules to severely curb elderly-care-related fraud behaviours and implement priority compensation mechanisms for consumer complaints to consolidate market operation security.

Competition in the silver economy sector centres on in-depth service capability and refined institutional arrangements. Local governments are optimising industrial development models to avoid utilitarian resource allocation and excessive tilt of public resources towards single consumer groups. Sustainable development of the elderly health and residential industry focuses on resolving practical operational barriers for cross-region elderly settlement. Continuous improvements in public service equalisation, medical supporting facilities and unified service standards will convert short-term seasonal consumer flows into stable long-term resident groups. Improved elderly living experience with guaranteed safety and dignity will drive the silver economy from simple passenger flow competition into a sustainable engine for regional economic transformation and people’s livelihood optimisation.