Ma Yiliang of China Tourism Academy: Tourism consumption is shifting from "thing-centered" to "people-centered"

China News Service, Yinchuan, November 11 (Reporter Li Peishan) On November 11, the 2026 Tourism and Travel Conference was held in Yinchuan. Ma Yiliang, deputy director of the China Tourism Academy, proposed on the spot that China's cultural tourism development is completing an ontological shift from "object-centered" to "people-centered", that is, from valuing landscapes and hardware to valuing people's true feelings. "The essence of iteration in the tourism industry is the continuous improvement of human subjectivity." He said.

The Purple Avenue at the foot of Helan Mountain will open in 2026, connecting tens of thousands of acres of grape planting bases, boutique wineries and scenic spots, attracting tourists for self-driving sightseeing. Photo courtesy of Yinchuan Municipal Culture, Tourism, Radio, Film and Television Bureau

Ma Yiliang divided this process into three stages: the period from reform and opening up to 2005 was the "landscape production" stage, when natural and cultural heritage such as the Great Wall and the Terracotta Warriors and Horses were packaged into check-in landscapes. Tourists traveled long distances for the landscape, and people were in a subordinate position; from 2006 to 2020, it entered the "experience production" stage. Theme parks, glass plank roads, and immersive projects have emerged in large numbers, but the projects are highly homogeneous, the tourism experience is diluted, and simple sensory stimulation is difficult to bring long-term satisfaction; since 2020, it has entered the "emotional value-led" stage, with emotional resonance, group identification, and self-awakening becoming the first driving force for consumption.

In his view, the turning point occurred around 2020. The epidemic has accelerated the change in the public's outlook on life. Consumers are no longer obsessed with hardware landscapes and physical experiences, but instead pursue emotional resonance and self-identity. He also mentioned that the standards for judging people's value are changing: in the past, the value of ordinary people was often defined by material conditions. "'Seeing people by things' has been a long-standing habit. Today's young people no longer want to be defined by external labels such as assets and certificates," he said.

Supporting this judgment is a survey covering 1,586 respondents: 40.8% of people’s primary goal of participating in large-scale live events is to feel the atmosphere and gain pleasure, and 17.5% of people do it to gain group recognition and achieve self-awakening. "The public's self-perception is changing from 'I have a body' to 'I am a body.'" He said that physical experience is unique and cannot be standardized, and individual value is thereby released.

Today, this shift is rewriting the standards of the cultural travel industry. "Hotels and cultural tourism products are weakening their star rating and hardware parameters, and consumers are only willing to pay for the functions they really use." Ma Yiliang said that niche segmented businesses are replacing standardized products, and the core value of offline spaces has also shifted from sightseeing and entertainment to creating emotions and community connections. He mentioned that the opening of government parking lots and canteens in some places is essentially a "people-centered" implementation.

This logic has been confirmed in the industry report released at the same time: China's self-driving tours will reach 5.09 billion in 2025, accounting for nearly 80% of the total number of domestic travellers. RV rental orders will increase by 71% year-on-year. Among car rental users, the order volume of "post-00s" users will increase by nearly 40% year-on-year.

"People are no longer objects to be viewed, people themselves are the core resources of the consumption space." Ma Yiliang said.