{"id":297266,"date":"2026-02-18T11:17:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T11:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/297266\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T11:17:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T11:17:12","slug":"businesses-scramble-to-reach-chinas-growing-experiences-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/297266\/","title":{"rendered":"Businesses scramble to reach China’s growing experiences economy"},"content":{"rendered":"

This report is from this week’s CNBC’s The China Connection newsletter, which brings you insights and analysis on what’s driving the world’s second-largest economy. You can subscribe\u00a0here.<\/a><\/p>\n

The big story<\/p>\n

There’s nothing quite like the holiday rush in China for the Lunar New Year. <\/p>\n

The Beijing city streets start emptying out several days in advance as the majority of residents return to their hometowns or travel elsewhere. A quiet calm replaces the normally tense atmosphere of people rushing to work or school. <\/p>\n

So where are the locals going? Immersive experiences rank high.<\/p>\n

Bookings for theme park hotels nearly doubled from a year ago, while demand for trips with traditional performances and artisanal crafts rose about 40%, according to preliminary figures from Fliggy, a travel platform owned by Alibaba<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“We’ve seen a lot of younger generation doing much more deep dive into the cultural experience<\/a>, testing local activities in terms of arts in China,” said Kenneth Chow, a principal at consulting firm Oliver Wyman. <\/p>\n

Pictured here is the mascot for Chinese video, animation and gaming platform Bilibili as part of a festival ahead of the Lunar New Year in Shanghai, China, on Feb. 7, 2026.<\/p>\n

Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty Images<\/p>\n

Those are all trends that businesses are trying to capture in an otherwise challenging economic environment.<\/p>\n

So far, one thing’s clear from the numbers: people are moving around more in search of new experiences, thanks in part to affordable trains and hotels.<\/p>\n

The official holiday runs from Feb. 15 to 23 this year, but China’s broader travel season stretches roughly 40 days, from early February to mid-March. China counts travel in terms of “trips” rather than people, and is predicting records this year: 110 million trips<\/a> in and out of Beijing alone and a whopping 9.5 billion trips<\/a> nationwide. That indicates that most of\u00a0China’s\u00a01.4 billion people will be traveling to more than one city.<\/p>\n

H World Group<\/a>, which operates more than 20 hotel chains in China, said demand is up for both “major transport hubs and leisure-focused cities such as Xishuangbanna<\/a>,” a remote region on the border with Myanmar and Laos. In addition to lush nature, the region is known for its ancient Dai Buddhist temples, built hundreds of years ago.<\/p>\n

Booking site Trip.com shows that more than 800 hotels opened in the region in the last two years, including a Hilton Garden Inn and one of IHG’s new premium “voco” branded spots.<\/p>\n

Last year, Xishuangbanna already reported more than 4 million visits and tourism revenue of 5.04 billion ($730 million) yuan during the holiday<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Theme parks push<\/p>\n

Entertainment companies are also finding ways to interact with viewers in person.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the holiday, video streaming company iQiyi<\/a> opened its first theme park in Yangzhou, a city just over two hours away from Shanghai by high-speed train. The indoor venue features live theater and interactive virtual reality experiences based on popular shows streamed on iQiyi, sometimes called “China’s Netflix.”<\/p>\n

Founder and CEO Yu Gong didn’t shy away from emphasizing the theme park’s importance to his company. “As demand for offline entertainment surges, we see iQiyi Land as a new driver for our long-term growth,” he said in a press release. <\/p>\n

It’s a needed boost for iQiyi, which has struggled to retain paying subscribers against competition from short-form videos and shows on other platforms. The Yangzhou theme park opening was also delayed by a few months<\/a>. <\/p>\n

It’s the first theme park by a video streaming company in China. Rivals Tencent<\/a>, Bilibili<\/a> and Alibaba-owned Youku have yet to open year-round experiences, but there’s a growing push for events. <\/p>\n

Shanghai-based Bilibili’s annual multi-day expo, where characters from its animated shows and games come to life, sold out in seconds<\/a>. <\/p>\n

In an effort to tap into a similar opportunity, Universal Studios Beijing announced plans ahead of the Lunar New Year to incorporate themes<\/a> from a major Chinese animated film, a video game and other locally popular characters into upcoming visitor activities \u2014 not just for the holiday but the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

Even Pop Mart, the toy maker behind the Labubu dolls, also operates a theme park in Beijing.<\/p>\n

Tepid market<\/p>\n

All these come against a pullback in overall consumer spending. Retail sales in China grew by just 0.9%<\/a> in December from a year ago. <\/p>\n

That hasn’t stopped Louis Vuitton from opening two new stores in the last 12 months \u2014 with a clear emphasis on cultivating a shareable experience. The European luxury giant has used celebrities to generate buzz<\/a> about the brand, while opening a cafe and using iconic store architecture to generate buzz on social media. <\/p>\n

Shopping malls are also full of luxury brands showing off clothes and jewelry designed with the theme of the upcoming year’s Chinese zodiac symbol \u2014 a horse. <\/p>\n

But what more and more consumers in China clearly will pay for is an emotionally rich journey to a new destination. That’s something businesses will need to adjust to.<\/p>\n

Top TV picks on CNBC\"How<\/p>\n

The Lunar New Year is a big spending holiday in China, and luxury brands are using the festival to connect with customers.<\/p>\n

\"Technicals<\/p>\n

Stephen Chang, portfolio manager at PIMCO, explained why investors should remain focused on higher-quality credit issuers in China. He also discussed his expectations for the Chinese yuan.<\/p>\n

Need to knowIn the markets<\/p>\n

Mainland China and Hong Kong exchanges were closed for the Lunar New Year holiday.<\/p>\n

Trading in Hong Kong will resume Feb. 20, while mainland exchanges reopen Feb. 24.<\/p>\n

The CSI 300 is down 1.2% year to date, while the Hang Seng Index<\/a> rose 1.4% across the same period.<\/p>\n

Stock Chart IconStock chart icon\"hide<\/p>\n

The performance of the Shanghai Composite over the past year.<\/p>\n

Coming up<\/p>\n

Feb. 24: Mainland China stock markets reopen after Lunar New Year holiday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This report is from this week’s CNBC’s The China Connection newsletter, which brings you insights and analysis on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[15464,1684,55604,150548,76296,114,357,150545,1657,11007,184,43457,127771,3449,56619,118650,85,150546,150547,150549,46,56647,117095,5733,50747,133401,12520,11603,2965,64857,97694],"class_list":{"0":"post-297266","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-alibaba-group-holding-ltd","9":"tag-alphabet-class-a","10":"tag-baidu-inc","11":"tag-bilibili-inc","12":"tag-booking-holdings-inc","13":"tag-business","14":"tag-business-news","15":"tag-cedar-fair-lp","16":"tag-china","17":"tag-comcast-corp","18":"tag-economy","19":"tag-expedia-group-inc","20":"tag-h-world-group-ltd","21":"tag-hang-seng-index","22":"tag-hilton-worldwide-holdings-inc","23":"tag-hyatt-hotels-corp","24":"tag-il","25":"tag-intercontinental-hotels-group-plc","26":"tag-invesco-china-technology-etf","27":"tag-iqiyi-inc","28":"tag-israel","29":"tag-las-vegas-sands-corp","30":"tag-marriott-international-inc","31":"tag-shanghai","32":"tag-tencent-holdings-ltd","33":"tag-tencent-music-entertainment-group","34":"tag-tesla-inc","35":"tag-walt-disney-co","36":"tag-world-economy","37":"tag-wyndham-hotels-resorts-inc","38":"tag-wynn-resorts-ltd"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}