Tourism experts explore priorities over next five years

More than 200 tourism industry experts, business representatives and local officials gathered in Yantai, Shandong province, on Nov 3 to discuss the challenges and opportunities shaping China's tourism industry over the next five years.

The China Tourism Association organized the 2026 Tourism Industry High-quality Development Event, themed "China's Tourism in the Next Five Years". Held in the opening year of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30), the event addressed key industry questions through three sessions: development trends, overcoming existing challenges, and industrial integration.

Du Yili, chair of the association's expert committee, highlighted the growing imbalance between evolving consumer demand and the transformation of tourism supply. She called for a broader, more interconnected tourism industry built on industrial collaboration and clusters, with innovation in content, services and business models.

Wei Xiao'an, the association's chief expert, said tourism is shifting from sightseeing to comprehensive experiences, and from an element of everyday life to a purpose in itself. He called for new approaches to resources, products and industry development that better respond to consumers' emotional needs.

Song Rui, director of the Tourism Research Center at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, outlined five priorities in the 15th Five-Year Plan for building China into a leading tourism nation: high-quality development, smart and green transformation, industrial integration, tourism consumption, and inbound tourism.

Other experts examined challenges ranging from tourism land-use policies and inbound visitor services to hotel oversupply, scenic-area management, and integrating tourism with healthcare and transportation.

A roundtable on high-quality tourism destination development brought together representatives from Yantai, Huzhou in Zhejiang province, Yunnan province, and Shitai county in Anhui province to share experiences and discuss approaches to destination branding, business innovation and sustainable growth.

The event concluded with the release of the Yantai Consensus on High-quality Development of the Tourism Industry. It calls for the sector to shift from expanding its scale to strengthening its overall competitiveness, deepen cross-industry collaboration, recognize the value of tourism professionals, and further open up inbound tourism.

Yantai also used the event to showcase its coastal scenery, historical heritage and culinary culture. The city is developing its "Fairyland Coast" tourism brand and seeking to turn visitor traffic into longer stays and more sustained tourism demand.