China's cultural and tourism consumption market showed vitality this summer amid business model iteration and cross-sector integration. National Bureau of Statistics data showed that in June, the national consumer price index rose 1.0% year-on-year, with consumer goods prices up 1.1% and service prices up 0.8%.
Tourists' consumption concepts are shifting from sightseeing-oriented to experience-oriented, placing greater emphasis on emotional value and cultural depth. Professor Xu Lan from the School of Economics and Management at Wuhan University noted that tourists are no longer satisfied with simply checking off landmarks, but seek participation, a sense of gain, emotional satisfaction, and self-growth, driving the industry toward refined operations.
Camping products across multiple regions have introduced new changes in scenes and content. A campsite in Shijiazhuang, Hebei, incorporated water-based interactions, allowing visitors to experience catching fish and crabs in shallow streams. A riverside park-style camping base in Guiyang, Guizhou, offers barbecues, stove-boiled tea, and nighttime bonfires, immersing tourists in mountain scenery. A campsite in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, leveraging its cool environment, covers team-building, study tours, and recreation, transforming into a short-distance micro-vacation destination. A suburban camping base in Yangquan, Shanxi, integrates book cafes, handicrafts, and supports customized themed activities, extending visitors' stays.
Song Changyao, director of the Tourism Management Department at Beijing International Studies University, said that hot weather is driving the continuous expansion of cultural tourism consumption themed on cooling off and summer escape. However, Xu Lan cautioned that the industry must avoid being a short-lived fad. She believes many projects overly rely on a single landscape and lack the ability to continuously produce content and connect with users.
To achieve lasting popularity, Xu Lan suggested not relying solely on static landscapes, but building a dynamic attraction mechanism through content iteration, community operation, and urban symbiosis. This includes using seasonal themed activities to continuously create new experiences; turning tourist traffic into community engagement with co-creation mechanisms; and deeply integrating with local culture and surrounding industries, making tourist destinations also 'urban living rooms' for local residents.