As the aging society accelerates, the health care market has entered a golden age.
According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, as of the end of 2023, my country’s population aged 60 and above totaled 297 million, accounting for 21.1% of the national population. It is expected that by 2035, my country’s elderly population will exceed the 400 million mark.
Against this background, the word “elderly care” was mentioned 13 times in this year’s Government Work Report. It specifically proposed the implementation of a national strategy to actively respond to population aging. Strengthen the supply of supplies and services for the elderly and vigorously develop the silver economy.
Population aging has given rise to a new form of “silver economy”
Major policies continue to increase health and wellness tourism
Since the industry has always regarded health and elderly care as the main components of the health care industry, and China’s society is accelerating into aging at this stage, the health care of middle-aged and elderly people has long been concentrated or equated with the elderly care industry. Judging from the actual needs of this group at this stage, health care for middle-aged and elderly people includes not only the elderly care industry, but also related and peripheral industries such as medical tourism, chronic disease management, health testing, nutritious meals, and elderly culture.
According to calculations by the National Social Science Fund’s “Research on Elder Care Consumption and Elder Care Industry Development”, the scale of the elderly care industry will exceed 2.5 trillion yuan by 2030, and the scale of the elderly care industry is expected to reach 21.95 trillion yuan by 2050.
At the same time, according to data from the “China Domestic Tourism Development Annual Report (2022–2023)” released by the China Tourism Academy, the total number of middle-aged and elderly tourists aged 45 and above will reach 1.194 billion in 2021, accounting for 36.81% of the domestic tourism market. .
Compared with developed countries in the global health and wellness tourism industry, my country’s health and wellness tourism industry has a relatively short development time, and it only received official national-level policy support in the early days of the “Thirteenth Five-Year Plan”.
However, since the “14th Five-Year Plan”, as my country’s aging process has accelerated, the government’s support for the health and wellness tourism industry has reached unprecedented heights. According to statistics, up to now, as many as 10 industry plans or policies related to health and wellness tourism have been issued at the national level alone. for example:
In 2021, the “14th Five-Year Plan for Culture and Tourism Development” issued by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism clearly stated that we should actively develop health and wellness tourism and promote the construction of health and wellness tourism demonstration bases across the country.
In early January this year, the General Office of the State Council issued the “Opinions on Developing the Silver Economy to Improve the Well-Being of the Elderly”, which for the first time included the development of the silver economy as an important part of cultivating new drivers of economic development. At the same time, it was also clearly pointed out that tourism service formats should be expanded for the silver-haired group, and the welfare of the elderly should be continuously improved by improving tourism service facilities, encouraging the development of various tourism products, and strengthening tourism market supervision.
Industrial integration development models continue to emerge
Can “agriculture + tourism + health care” become the next trend?
Agriculture is my country’s basic industry that supports the construction and development of the national economy, and it is developing in a new direction. With the development of supply-side reform and agricultural industrialization, “agriculture + big data + Internet of Things” will become the mainstream. Under this general direction, the pursuit of health and safety has become a fashion. With this demand comes “agriculture + The popularity of the “tourism + wellness” model.
Nowadays, many places have begun to think about how to revitalize the “agriculture + tourism + health care” model, thus developing a very typical “agriculture + tourism + health care” model, which involves tourism in the peak season and health care in the off-season.
Take Pingtou Qiang Village in Maoxian County, Sichuan as an example. In this village, there are all kinds of service facilities, including dozens of local country hotels and many family inns. In addition to the tourist crowds during the peak season, local hotels and inns are still accepting health and wellness services, that is, many elderly people come here. For a few dozen yuan a day, food, accommodation and entertainment are all included. Around these inns, many fruit trees are planted, and seasonal vegetables are planted under the fruit trees. These are the main sources of food for the inns. Of course, there are also some features here, such as there is a Nuo Cultural Square, where every household who is recuperating here can come and participate in activities.
In fact, many places have begun to imitate and apply this model. Some are supporting health care in agricultural industrial parks, and some are supporting health care in rural nursing homes, and they are all doing it in full swing. The successful development of these small towns is inseparable from cultural connotation, natural resources, hardware conditions and supporting industries.
Write at the end
The future development of agriculture will inevitably be industrialized and digitalized, and the pursuit of quality and output will still be the mainstream, but the purpose of achieving it will be different. The model of “agriculture + tourism + health care” is a good supplement.
Under the general policy of rural revitalization, the construction of characteristic towns has become a good outlet. Living in a characteristic town naturally meets the needs of culture and hardware. Although the “agriculture + tourism + health care” model is difficult to develop into the mainstream, it is expected to usher in a period of rapid development under the construction of characteristic towns.
This paper is from Ulink Media, Shenzhen, China, the organizer of IOTE EXPO (IoT Expo in China)
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