Seize another trillion-level market: Tourism provinces set their sights on passing travelers

According to a report from "Yunnan Release", on November 11th, the Promotion Conference for the High - quality Development of "Living in Yunnan" was held in Mile City, Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province. The theme of this promotion conference was "Living in Yunnan, Enjoying Life, and Co - drawing a New Blueprint for Development", which systematically displayed the latest achievements and development blueprint of Yunnan's living - tourism industry.

At the conference, the "Special Plan for the Development of 'Living in Yunnan' (2025 - 2030)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan") was pre - released, and the list of the first batch of 26 high - quality development pilot projects for "Living in Yunnan" was officially announced. These pilot projects cover 16 prefectures and cities across Yunnan Province, focusing on nine major directions such as promoting farmers' income, boosting employment and entrepreneurship, promoting industrial integration, and implementing cultural empowerment. The aim is to explore and form a replicable and promotable living - tourism development model through the guidance of typical cases.

In terms of spatial layout, the "Plan" proposes to build a comprehensive living - tourism development pattern of "Two Axes, Three Belts, and Six Areas": The "Two Axes" rely on major transportation arteries such as the China - Laos Railway, the Chongqing - Kunming High - speed Railway, and the Shanghai - Kunming High - speed Railway to create living - tourism corridors with complementary north - south and coordinated east - west development; the "Three Belts" are the Jinsha River cold - and heat - avoiding living - tourism belt, the Lancang River ecological living - tourism belt, and the border - crossing living - tourism belt; the "Six Areas" focus on regions such as central Yunnan, south - western Yunnan, and north - western Yunnan to achieve differentiated and characteristic development.

Since 2023, Yunnan has taken frequent actions to continuously build the living - tourism brand of "A Lifestyle Called Yunnan".

In 2024, Yunnan released the "Three - Year Action Plan to Accelerate the Construction of 'Living in Yunnan'", clearly proposing eight living - tourism formats, including rural, urban, vacation, medical and health care, elderly care, cultural and artistic, sports, and border - area happy living - tourism. The goal is to cultivate more than 3,000 key rural living - tourism villages by 2027.

In April this year, the Eighth Plenary Session of the 11th Yunnan Provincial Party Committee further pointed out that it is necessary to promote the in - depth integration of culture and tourism, promote the healthy and orderly development of "Living in Yunnan", materialize the concept of "A Lifestyle Called Yunnan", and polish the golden signboard of tourism. In June, Yunnan also released the "Specific Measures to Promote the Role of 'Living - in - Yunnan Talents'", aiming to attract and gather more "living - in - Yunnan talents" to live, work, and start businesses in Yunnan.

Why does Yunnan focus on the "living - tourism" business?

As a major tourism province, in 2024, Yunnan received 700 million tourists, with a total tourism expenditure of 1.14 trillion yuan. The added value of tourism and related industries accounted for more than 7% of the regional GDP, contributing a large number of jobs. On the other hand, in the traditional tourism model, the "ticket economy" in Yunnan occupies an important position, but it is difficult to meet the increasingly diverse needs of tourists.

A set of data previously disclosed by the Yunnan Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism showed that in the tourism consumption structure of Yunnan, in the past, tourists' transportation expenses accounted for about 40%, accommodation expenses about 30%, catering expenses about 10%, scenic - spot expenses about 10%, and other expenses about 10%. Not much of the highest - proportion transportation expenses and part of the accommodation expenses remained locally.

After many efforts, in 2024, the number of people living in Yunnan reached 3.898 million, and the consumption scale exceeded 42.56 billion yuan. Among them, on - site consumption such as catering, accommodation, and entertainment accounted for more than 60%, directly driving the province's consumption growth. In the first nine months of this year, the number reached 3.9347 million, exceeding the whole - year scale of last year, with a year - on - year increase of 51.5%.

In the view of local media, with the introduction of the latest "Plan" and the in - depth promotion of pilot work, "'Living in Yunnan' is accelerating to become a well - deserved big IP, a large ecosystem, and a major industry, providing a 'Yunnan solution' that can be learned from for the development of the national living - tourism industry."

However, currently, Yunnan is also facing more and more competitors.

In August this year, the "Implementation Plan for the Special Action to Boost Consumption in Guizhou Province" proposed to develop living - tourism formats such as summer - resort, forest, and hot - spring tourism, plan and build a number of summer - resort and health - care living - tourism real - estate projects, expand the off - site customer groups from the Guangdong - Hong Kong - Macao Greater Bay Area, the Chengdu - Chongqing Economic Circle, and the Yangtze River Delta, and cultivate and expand the "Living in Guizhou" consumer market. In addition, Hainan, Zhejiang, Heilongjiang and other places also hope to build their own characteristic IPs through various measures to attract the elderly and young living - tourism groups.

Data from the China Tourism Academy shows that the potential demand in the national living - tourism market can reach 600 million person - times, and the overall scale is expected to be close to 3 trillion yuan. Facing this trillion - level market, how to keep "passing tourists" has become a new topic for various regions.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Urban Evolution Theory". Author: Liu Yanmei. Republished by 36Kr with permission.