In the summer of 2026, "heading to county towns" became a new travel trend, and the "slow-paced" travel that emphasizes relaxation allowed a number of hidden gem county towns to reshape the new paradigm of summer travel.

"Low-price alternatives" are no longer the inherent label of "county town tourism": tourists' accommodation experience has been upgraded, overall consumption has risen, and the tourism revenue generation capacity of some counties has even surpassed that of first-tier cities.

From "I've been there" to "What I felt"

According to the "2026 First Half-Year Tourism Market Insight Report" recently released by the China Tourism Association, county-level tourism became an important growth engine in the first half of the year, with the popularity of "hidden gem towns" and "county tours" continuing to rise.

According to Liu Min, a professor and doctoral supervisor at the School of Tourism at Beijing Union University, the popularity of "county tours" shows that tourism is shifting from "symbolic consumption" to "meaningful consumption." In the past, visiting famous scenic spots was to prove "I've been there," but today young people care more about "what I felt." Behind this is a fundamental reconstruction of the meaning of tourism: from display-oriented consumption to experiential consumption, and from resource-driven to content and emotion-driven.

Data from online travel platforms also confirms this shift. Middle-class parents from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen are collectively flocking to county towns with their children. Data from Qunar.com shows that in the summer of 2026, hotel and guesthouse bookings covered over a thousand county towns nationwide. Summer vacations in county towns are experiencing a "consumption upgrade," with average spending on hotels in county towns increasing across all age groups. Those born in the 1980s are the most willing to spend on county town travel, with an average payment of 526 yuan for summer hotel and guesthouse bookings in county towns.

High-quality accommodations in county towns are particularly sought after. During the summer vacation, bookings for four-star and above hotels in county towns saw double-digit year-on-year growth, with high-star hotels accounting for 23% of all hotel bookings. This means that one in every five hotel bookings in county towns during the summer vacation was for a high-star hotel. The earning power of some county towns has surpassed that of first-tier cities. In Fusong, Jilin, the average hotel price paid during the summer vacation reached 679 yuan; in Changli, Hebei, the average hotel price paid during the summer vacation reached 835 yuan; and in Fogang, near Guangzhou, the average hotel price paid during the summer vacation reached 870 yuan.

"The trip wasn't tiring, we had a great time, and the experience was excellent." Parents who took their children on a "county tour" during the summer vacation felt it was well worth the trip.

Why are urban parents more willing to spend money in county towns this year? "On the one hand, it comes from the upgrading of tourism concepts. More and more families are willing to go to a relaxed, safe, and uncongested place to truly relax and have parent-child conversations. On the other hand, the 'quality-price ratio' of high-quality accommodation in county towns is still higher than that in first-tier cities. The scarcity of being able to stay directly in the scenery, as well as the various unique local experiences and services, also make consumers in big cities feel that it is worthwhile," analyzed Yang Han, a researcher at the Qunar Travel Big Data Research Institute.

The slower pace of life has made this "nameless" county town a hit.

Parents are taking their children on "county tours," while young people are also catching green-skinned trains to travel to distant places, savoring a "slow-paced" trip. Data from Tongcheng Travel shows that during the summer of 2026, bookings for regular-speed trains (K-series and T-series) and travel products tagged with "green-skinned trains" and "train travel" increased by over 45% year-on-year, with overnight slow trains being the most popular among young travelers. Looking at user profiles, young users aged 18 to 30 account for 42% of the core customer group choosing green-skinned train travel.

The green-skinned train is no longer just a means to reach a destination, but an integral part of the journey itself—a consumption chain centered on "slow" is being restructured. Data from Tongcheng Travel shows a significant increase in passenger flow at small and medium-sized stations along the green-skinned train route, with demand for hotels, restaurants, and car rentals around these stations increasing by over 45% compared to the same period last year. "Slow travel" routes, primarily using green-skinned trains, have brought considerable passenger growth to small and medium-sized cities and county-level destinations that were previously prone to "skipping stops," effectively activating the local cultural and tourism consumption potential along the routes.

Liu Min believes that the surge in popularity of slow-paced "county tours" is due to four interconnected reasons: the cost-effectiveness of tourism in big cities continues to decline, leading tourists to flee from crowds and seek a more relaxed experience in counties; at the same time, the downward shift of social media traffic has allowed many previously "unknown" counties to quickly gain popularity through short videos and travel guides; young people's pursuit of emotional value and authenticity makes the preserved local life, dialects, and slow-paced streets of counties a unique attraction; and finally, the significant improvement in county infrastructure and reception capacity has given counties the confidence to truly embrace this wave of popularity.

Opportunities belong to county towns with "internal strength".

Policy benefits are rapidly being distributed to county-level areas.

In July 2026, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued the "15th Five-Year Plan for Building a Tourism Powerhouse," which clearly proposed "developing county-level tourism and cultivating a number of famous tourism counties."

On August 13, 2026, nine departments jointly issued the "Opinions on Further Stimulating the Vitality of Lower-Tier Markets and Enhancing County-Level Consumption," proposing to promote the integrated development of commerce, agriculture, culture, tourism, and sports, and to create a number of rural tourism destinations with distinctive cultural characteristics. The Opinions also call for cultivating distinctive consumption scenarios such as "health and wellness +", "culture and tourism +", "agriculture +", "folk customs +", and "historical classics +", and supporting neighboring counties in creating cross-regional classic consumption routes to attract more urban residents to rural areas for consumption.

At a press conference held by the State Council Information Office on the afternoon of August 18, relevant officials from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism stated that they will focus on multiple aspects, including product and industry supply, scenarios, and activities, to promote the upgrading of county-level cultural and tourism economy and stimulate greater vitality in cultural and tourism consumption. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism is guiding 113 counties to carry out pilot projects for empowering rural revitalization through the cultural industry, implementing actions to improve the quality and efficiency of rural tourism, guiding various regions to explore distinctive cultural and tourism resources, enriching "small but beautiful" rural cultural and tourism formats such as homestays, agricultural study tours, self-driving camping, and folk experience, and continuously optimizing the "Beautiful Scenery of the Countryside in All Four Seasons" boutique routes.

The "downward" development of the cultural and tourism consumption market shows enormous potential for growth. How can county towns capitalize on this surge of tourism? "The challenge for county-level tourism lies in the increasing differentiation. While the equalization of tourism traffic has given all county towns an opportunity, that opportunity belongs only to those with strong internal capabilities," Liu Min believes. These capabilities don't refer to the number of attractions a county has, but rather the ability to convert one-time tourism traffic into repeat business. This includes product conversion capabilities, the resilience of the service supply chain, the speed of content iteration, and whether local residents can benefit from tourism and actively maintain positive word-of-mouth.

"Overall, infrastructure, public service facilities, and service awareness and standards remain shortcomings that urgently need to be addressed in the development of county-level tourism. On the one hand, facing a large influx of tourists, counties need to comprehensively coordinate their reception and public service facilities, fully assess their tourism capacity, and prepare contingency plans. On the other hand, they must avoid a short-sighted mentality, encourage the cultivation of cultural and tourism talent and the development of a service-oriented mindset, accelerate the reform of county-level talent training mechanisms, and effectively improve the level of cultural and tourism services," said Liu Min. (Source: CNR.cn)