China's Gen Zers show new travel trends during May Day holiday

China's Gen Zers showed some new travel trends during the May Day holiday when the whole country witnessed a travel craze.

Tourists watch the sun rise in a seaside amusement park in the Binhai New Area of north China's Tianjin on the morning of May 3, 2023. (Photo/Tong Yu)

Tongcheng Travel, an online travel platform, reported that China experienced a robust recovery in the tourism sector, with the proportion of student travelers increasing sharply during the holiday. Some new travel trends have emerged among student travelers, such as immersive traveling experiences, and "Special Forces-style Tourism" - visiting as many sights as possible within the shortest period of time.

"To collect seals of different tourist attractions, I went to a lot of places in the morning," said Liu Shiyu, a college student from Shanghai. Liu, who had so far collected the seals of the West Lake scenic area in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, and Nanjing Museum in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province, explained that "every time I went on a trip to a city, I would search for seals. I have collected so many seals, which gives me a sense of accomplishment."

Photo shows tourists at the Tientsin Eye Ferris Wheel, also known as the Tianjin Eye, one of the city's landmarks, which was renovated for the Labor Day holiday. (Photo/Tong Yu)

Quite a few scenic areas, bookstores and museums in the country offer services to collect seals for free, which is a great way for travelers to remember places they visited, and has won the hearts of many young tourists. Plans to get seals are popular topics on Chinese social media platforms.

To attract young tourists, Tianjin Municipality in north China organized various activities during the holiday, including the first city orientation challenge, street basketball challenge, recreational vehicle camping, and V1 Racing Cup, according to Li Kemin, head of the Tianjian Municipal Bureau of Sports.

Pang Le, a junior student in north China's Hebei Province, went to Tianjin for the 2023 China Endurance Championship. Pang, a huge fan of a British television series about motor vehicles called Top Gear, said, "It's far more thrilling to watch live races."

Photo shows the opening ceremony of the 2023 China Endurance Championship in north China's Tianjin, May 2, 2023. (Photo/Tong Yu)

During this holiday, many shutterbugs embraced a new trend of renting photography gear at their destinations, as they wanted to carry less luggage and be more comfortable during the trips. "Many of my clients are college students," said Lin Hai, owner of a camera rental store in Tianjin.

"The new travel trends of China's Gen Zers come down to many factors such as material abundance and technology innovation, reflecting their willingness to develop strong minds and their pursuit of freedom," said Ma Xiaolong, a professor at the College of Tourism and Service Management of Nankai University in Tianjin.

A traveler chooses a camera in a rental store in north China's Tianjin, May 1, 2023. (Photo/Tong Yu)