In recent years, the Chinese tourism sector has been showing exponential growth in domestic traveling in the recent past. Hub of China’s latest market research, comprising extensive surveys and focus groups across major cities, reveals that Chinese travelers are increasingly turning their attention to exploring their own country. China’s new travel frontier is due to emerging trends in culture that embrace the local culture, better infrastructure, and shifting customer preferences due to some global events.
Rediscovering Local Heritage
Our research indicates a significant change in how Chinese travelers view domestic destinations. While once foreign travel was looked at as being more elite, there has been a rise in interest in domestic tourism and the culture of China. The concerns that predominate the subject; exploring historical places, ancient towns and significant cultural attractions within own country were intriguing among several focus group participants.
Some years’ ancient cities including Lijiang of Yunnan province and Pingyao of Shanxi province whose architectures are quite ancient are enjoying the boom. This trend indicates a growth of loyalty to national citizenship as well as interest in knowing the culture and the variety of Chinese people.
The Rise of Rural Tourism
The other fact revealed by the current Hub of China research is the rapidly developing rural tourism. Just look at Xiaohongshu or Mafengwo where thousands of posts are shared nowadays about countryside rural life, farm experiences, and eco-lodges. This occasion is more popular among the inhabitants of large cities who get tired of the noise and congestion of a big city and are looking forward to a chance to get close to nature.
Some of the comments included that focus group participants indicated the importance of actual experiences such as picking tea or receiving craft lessons or night in renovated traditional housing. It is also expected that this shift is causing economic development within the countryside regions and the protection of cultures and heritage.
Demand for Unique, Instagrammable Experiences
Chinese travelers particularly the young people are demanding novelty and aesthetically pleasing experiences. We find from our study that customers are seeking good destination and activities, which go beyond any typical tourist attraction. This has therefore given rise to specialist travel and unique tourism experiences and products.
For example, the Alxa Desert in the Inner Mongolia Region has recently become attractive as a ‘frosty desert’ good for photography. Growing great popularity, the Ice and Snow festival in Harbin has also established aesthetic values to be most engaging for photographing and sharing through WeChat, Douyin, and other social media apps.
The Impact of High-Speed Rail on Domestic Travel
The huge development and availability of high-speed rail services in the domestic tourism sector can be viewed as one of the significant characteristics. Regarding the reasons for utilizing high-speed trains, the participants of the focus groups shared that the accessibility of weekend breaks and short journeys has never been as easy with high-speed trains being cheap and conveniently located.
High-speed rail-linked cities are recording higher tourist flow. For instance, operations of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railroad led to increases in tourism in Suzhou, Nanjing, and many other places famous for short vacation tourism.
Wellness Tourism on the Rise
During research for our Hub of China, we also detected a trend towards wellness tourism. China’s outbound traveler starts to choose holidays where they can improve their health and wellness. Such a trend is quite noticeable in the surge in the number of hot spring resorts, traditional Chinese medicine health resorts, and yoga, and meditation centers throughout China.
Some places such as Sanya in Hainan province which is reputed for its famous beaches and spa resorts are already taking advantage of this trend. Likewise, the wind of new-age tourism has witnessed the Yunnan-situated ancient town named Dali more focusing on yoga.
The Influence of Food Tourism
The role of food in China’s culture has been significant and we find out from our study that cuisine is gradually moving to the forefront of domestic tourism. So many Chinese tourists are now engaged in food-focused trips, educational cooking classes, and even foodie street visits.
Today it is Chengdu which is famous for its Sichuan cuisine Guangzhou famous for Cantonese food and the list can continue. Facebook walls, Instagram feeds, and food blogs are a testament to the idea that traveling for food is a popular trend in the country.
Sustainable and Eco-friendly Travel Gaining Traction
Another new trend revealed in the course of the study is an increased focus on environmental and sustainable tourism. Increasing numbers of Chinese tourists are thinking about the effect of their visit on the environment and looking for ways to spend their holidays in eco-friendly lodges, national parks, or wherever a sustainable approach is used.
For example, the Giant Panda administrations of Sichuan have profited from escalated visitor turnout for viewing the pandas as well as for conservation. Such a tendency indicates a shift within Chinese consumers in the direction of increased responsible and conscious travel consumption.
Technology Shaping the Domestic Travel Experience
The research we conducted on Hub of China also underlined the way that technology influenced domestic travel experiences. Whether it is coordinating a trip through one of the many applications such as Ctrip or Qunar to paying with WeChat to purchase tickets, domestic travel has never been easier.
There has been the adoption of virtue reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies in tourist sites to help visitors. For instance, the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang uses VR to let people view high-definition images of paintings without causing harm to the restrictive artwork.
The Future of Domestic Tourism in China
The new pattern of domestic tourism in China is a big departure from the general trend of travel and tourism. A survey on our Hub of China has shown that there are many factors affecting the transformation of the tourism domain including upgrade of the infrastructure, alteration of values, and the renewed focus on the domestic culture.
This trend is still rather young though progressing fast and makes traveling and domestic tourism an important part of Chinese consumers’ lives. Using the right kind and mix of novelty, sustainable development, and technological incorporation, the organizations in the tourism sector have a habit of serving a vast and growing population of domestic tourists who would like to discover the beauty of their own country.