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china news service, september 16 (zheng yijia) "all luxury rooms are sold out during the mid-autumn festival. it takes at least ten days or half a month in advance to book a room during the holidays." on the 14th, customer service of a high-end resort hotel in pingtan county, fujian province told china news service.

during this mid-autumn festival holiday, some young people choose to go to the county town and spend relatively less money to enjoy high-star hotel services.

in recent years, pingtan county has become a hot tourist destination, with more than 460,000 related notes on xiaohongshu alone. the accommodation industry has also benefited from this. the above-mentioned hotel's deluxe single and deluxe double rooms, priced at 699 yuan, have been sold out during the mid-autumn festival, and even some dates during the national day have been sold out.

screenshot of a travel platform app

meituan data shows that in the first week of september, the counties with five-star luxury hotels that customers under the age of 30 most like to visit are changli county in hebei province, huidong county in guangdong province, chun'an county in zhejiang province, changxing county in zhejiang province, lingshui county in hainan province, and wuyuan county in jiangxi province.

in addition, more "niche" counties are being discovered by young people, and the number of orders for local five-star or luxury hotels has also increased. in the first week of september, the number of orders for five-star/luxury hotels in changting county, fujian province increased by 1,400%, the number of orders in fengxin county, jiangxi province increased by 1,200%, and the number of orders in zhongmu county, henan province increased by 1,150%.

in addition, meituan data also shows that in the first week of september, the number of searches for xinxing century hotel in qianwei county, sichuan province increased by 22% compared with the previous week. on the day of the mid-autumn festival (september 17), the hotel's luxury suites were less than 500 yuan per room. among the guests brought by meituan, young people born after 1990 accounted for nearly 60%.

high-star hotels in low-tier cities are attracting tourists with their “high quality-price ratio”. ctrip data also shows that as of a week before the mid-autumn festival, the average order price of five-star hotels in fourth- and fifth-tier cities was about 10% lower than that in first-tier and new first-tier cities.

feng yue, a college student from xianju county, zhejiang province, told china business network that the number of tourists to xianju has increased significantly in recent years. many people come here for the shenxianju, which has complete supporting accommodation and other facilities.

chinanews.com found through a search on ctrip that some high-end hotels in xianju county, such as xianju boya hotel, had sold out many room types from september 15 to 16. in the comments, many tourists said they came with their families, and many tourists were repeat customers.

at present, small cities are also becoming the focus of hotel groups. according to data disclosed in huazhu group's second quarter 2024 performance conference, as of the end of june, 41% of huazhu group's operating hotels were located in third-tier and lower cities, compared with 39% in the previous year. according to qi qi, the founder of huazhu group, the hotel chain rates in china's first-tier, second-tier, third-tier and fourth-tier cities are 44%, 36%, 25% and 14% respectively. the hotel industry in third-tier and fourth-tier cities has greater room for development, and the low-tier market has become one of the key words in the logic of hotel investment in the new era.

small town homestays are in high demand and supply

in addition to hotels, homestays have also become beneficiaries of the booming county tourism.

in recent days, gou yunhua, a young man born in the 1980s who returned to his hometown to start a homestay business in ziyang county, shaanxi province, is busy preparing for the upcoming mid-autumn festival holiday. this summer, his homestay "dream ziyang" is full, and most of the tourists are middle-aged and elderly people and families with children, including residents of nearby cities and many self-driving tourists passing by. at present, the number of tourists to gou yunhua's homestay has increased by 20% compared with last year.

while opening the b&b, gou yunhua found that his b&b only had 11 rooms, was small in scale and had obvious seasonality, so it was not enough to rely solely on the income from guest rooms. ziyang county happened to be a major tea-producing county, so he built a tea processing workshop and a rice wine workshop, and launched a comprehensive b&b business that integrates accommodation, leisure, team building, and research. at present, products such as rice wine and tea have surpassed the b&b's accommodation income to become the main source of revenue, driving an average of more than 40 farmers in the surrounding area to find jobs each year, and the average annual income per household is nearly 5,000 yuan.

according to the "discovering treasures of china in county towns" recently released by tujia homestay, county homestays are becoming a new force in china's homestay industry. in the past year, the number of county homestay bookings has increased by more than 30% year-on-year, and the number of county landlords on the tujia platform has increased by more than 20% per year. at present, the county homestays on the tujia platform show the characteristics of strong supply and demand, and the number of bookings and supply has outperformed the market since the beginning of this year.

"more and more people are willing to go to county towns to explore china, and county homestays are a fast-growing market," said hu yang, senior vice president of tujia homestay. "homestays are also a microcosm of county development. with more transportation options and better supporting facilities, there will be a steady stream of customers, helping the entire county homestay economy move towards a positive cycle."

"reverse tourism" to county towns becomes a trend

“reverse tourism” has entered county towns and become a travel trend among young people.

according to the "2024 young people's county travel report" recently released by meituan, dali, pingtan, rongcheng, dunhuang and yanji are the most popular counties for young people to visit this summer. according to the "national county tourism development research report 2024" released by the national county tourism research group, in 2023, the average total tourism revenue of 1,866 counties across the country will be 4.295 billion yuan, and the average total number of tourists received will be 5.0827 million, an increase of 41.19% and 35.18% year-on-year, respectively, a significant increase, and county tourism has recovered strongly.

in july this year, on the recommendation of a friend, beijing white-collar worker li qing and a dozen friends drove five cars to fengning manchu autonomous county, hebei province. "fengning is near beijing, and the distance is relatively close. i saw beijing license plates all along the way," said li qing. li qing spent less than 700 yuan on the two-day trip. she rode horses and visited the hundred miles art gallery. she was particularly impressed by the vast land and cattle and sheep. "i started to miss the roasted lamb there again. it was really delicious and cheap."

when asked why they like traveling to small cities, consumers cited short distance, convenient round-trip travel, and affordable prices as the main keywords.

"china has entered the era of mass tourism, and the popularity of county tourism is a reflection of the increasing differentiation and segmentation of the tourism market. compared with crowded tourist destinations, small county towns appear to be more leisurely and relaxing, and their relatively low prices make them popular among many tourists," said zhang jinshan, a researcher at the institute of tourism planning and development of beijing union university.

zhong hui, chairman of shangyouhui culture and tourism, also said: "contemporary young people have a clear trend of niche and personalized consumption. they don't like to go to well-known tourist destinations and crowd around. instead, they like to explore unique destinations through internet platforms such as douyin and xiaohongshu. on the other hand, the infrastructure construction in counties has been increasingly improved, with sufficient reception capacity and conditions, laying the foundation for county tourism."

gou yunhua also told china news service that in recent years, the local infrastructure construction in ziyang county has been gradually improved, which has provided great convenience for tourists and local tourism development. his homestay is adjacent to the expressway, and the sound road system has brought a large number of customers to it.

however, as young tourists flock to small towns, challenges still exist. "homogeneity is the biggest problem," said zhong hui. "we can't just follow other places and do barbecue because it's popular; or just follow a place and do the same because it's a popular check-in spot. counties must highlight local culture, combine local characteristics with trendy culture, and explore and reshape local tourism resources."

on the other hand, due to the short distance, the frequency of tourism is higher than that of long-distance tourist destinations, so how to keep the county tourism fresh to attract tourists to come again and again has also become a problem. "the resource density and richness of tourism in small county towns are relatively low. in this case, focusing on their own advantages, highlighting their characteristics and highlights, and pursuing small but exquisite, small but beautiful, rather than large and comprehensive, will help maintain market competitiveness." zhang jinshan said.

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editors: chang tao and luo kun