'Interest-driven travel' gains popularity among young Chinese travelers during National Day holiday

(ECNS) -- Interest-driven travel, centered on personal hobbies and hands-on experiences, gained popularity among young Chinese travelers during the National Day holiday, with activities such as pottery-making, coffee brewing and traditional handicrafts attracting visitors at destinations across the country.

In Jingdezhen, east China's Jiangxi Province, young travelers took pottery classes; in Pu'er, southwest China's Yunnan Province, visitors learned about coffee-making; and in Kaili, southwest China's Guizhou Province, some tourists tried their hand at traditional batik-making.

Liu Ying, a young tourist from Shanghai, set aside a day of her trip to Jingdezhen to learn pottery-making.

"I've always been interested in pottery. Making something with my own hands during a trip makes the experience more meaningful, and I can take home a unique piece," she said.

At a pottery studio in Sanbao Village, Jingdezhen's Zhushan District, pottery-making and glass crafts attracted a large number of young visitors during the holiday.

"We received nearly 300 tourist visits a day during the National Day holiday, most of them young people," said Yang Zhijiang, who runs the studio. He said young travelers were increasingly looking beyond sightseeing and photography and opting for hands-on activities that match their interests.

Some visitors also signed up for week-long pottery courses that include accommodation and meals. The courses cover the full process from kneading clay and shaping it on a pottery wheel to glazing and firing.

Personal interests have become an increasingly important factor in how young people plan their trips. A 2026 report on interest-driven travel trends released by Xiaohongshu, a Chinese lifestyle and social media platform, showed a sharp increase in searches for experience-based travel on the platform.

On Meituan, a major Chinese local-services platform, searches for interest-based courses, including coffee-making experiences, clay sculpture and pottery classes, baking classes and private makeup lessons, rose steadily during the first three days of the National Day holiday.

In Nanchang, east China's Jiangxi Province, Chen Huixin, who runs a craft activity center, said bookings remained strong throughout the holiday, with the center receiving more than 30 orders a day for its DIY cookie-making activity alone. Many customers were young tourists from outside the city.

Chen's center offers a range of activities, including ceramic painting, DIY baking and patchwork lamp-making. She said more young people were willing to spend money on hobbies and hands-on experiences.

Local governments and tourism operators across China have expanded their range of experience-based cultural and tourism activities to meet the growing demand among young travelers during the holiday.

Jingdezhen recently launched a series of immersive cultural and tourism activities. Shexian County in east China's Anhui Province offered visitors the chance to make traditional Chinese ink sticks, while Fangzheng County in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province introduced rice-harvesting tours that allowed visitors to learn harvesting techniques from local farmers.

"Young people's growing interest in this type of travel reflects an upgrade in tourism consumption driven by the experience economy," said Liu Yu, an associate research fellow at the Institute of Literature and Culture Studies under the Jiangxi Academy of Social Sciences.

These travel opportunities meet the demands of the younger generation for having more personalized experiences while also encouraging the tourism industry to shift from standardized products toward more immersive and distinctive offerings.

(By Tang Yuxian)