The Starlight Night Market in Jinghong city, Xishuangbanna Dai autonomous prefecture, Yunnan province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
This summer, experiential tourism content has become a key driver of travel decisions among younger generations, and the experiential economy is continuously injecting new vitality into the cultural and tourism industry. Immersive experiences, emotional value and intangible cultural heritage have emerged as core keywords for cultural and tourism consumption, according to an industry report.
ByteDance’s Douyin Life Services recently revealed the 2026 Douyin Cultural and Tourism Consumption Trend Report, showing that the platform’s hotel and travel group-buy orders surged 35 percent year-on-year from June 1 to July 10.
Unlike fast-paced and tightly scheduled travel, slow-paced and immersive tourism has gained huge popularity among young people this summer. Content related to slow-paced and in-depth travel has seen a remarkable upward trend on Douyin, with over 20 billion views and more than 400 million likes on the platform.
Featuring unrushed schedules, immersive travel experiences and relatively low costs, this travel mode allows tourists to fully experience the local customs and culture of each destination. Notably, small-town and rural travel, and intangible cultural heritage-themed travel have become top choices.
In terms of consumer groups, new graduates are a major consumer group for summer travel. Data show that graduate travel group-buy orders on Douyin rose 43 percent year-on-year, with relevant sales volume up 63 percent month-on-month.
Furthermore, the platform’s intangible cultural heritage tourism consumption achieved explosive growth. From June 1 to July 10, Douyin’s group-buy orders for intangible cultural heritage tourism increased 47 percent year-on-year, while related sales volume jumped 124 percent year-on-year.
Six destinations — Qingdao and Weihai in Shandong province, Kunming in Yunnan province, Shanwei in Guangdong province, Shangrao in Jiangxi province and Quanzhou in Fujian province — have accumulated over 162 million total relevant searches in the past quarter. More than 91 percent of these searches are related to destination travel content, and the search volume continues to climb steadily.
In terms of age demographics, Generation Z (those born between 1995 and 2009) stands out as a core growth engine, with its hotel and travel group-buy orders on Douyin surging by over 67 percent year-on-year from June 1 to July 10.
Meanwhile, the silver-haired generation also saw robust growth, with year-on-year order growth exceeding 57 percent. However, family travel remains the mainstay of summer tourism consumption, accounting for over half of all hotel and travel orders on the platform.