During the National Day holiday, when you walk into a scenic area, the number of times you need to open your wallet may be more than you expect.

First, you buy an admission ticket to enter. If the attraction is on a mountain, you then need a shuttle bus ticket or a cable car ticket. When you get tired, you find a restaurant for a meal. In the afternoon, you join an intangible cultural heritage handicraft experience, interact with costumed performers, and take photos. In the evening, you watch a performance. If the scenic area is large enough, you might stay overnight and continue exploring the next day.

For tourists, this is an increasingly rich travel experience. For the scenic area, every additional spending link represents another revenue opportunity.

These scattered expenditures within a single trip are the result of scenic areas transitioning away from a "ticket economy." This transition has been underway for years. As early as eight years ago, relevant authorities issued a document proposing to lower the excessively high ticket prices of key state-owned scenic areas, address the problem of some places relying excessively on the "ticket economy," and explicitly promote the transformation of the tourism industry from a "ticket economy" to an "industrial economy." The document also specifically required that while ticket prices are reduced, prices for other tour services such as transportation within scenic areas must not be raised, which would indirectly increase the burden on tourists.

A clear question confronts scenic areas: where can revenue beyond tickets be found? We reviewed the financial reports of six typical listed scenic area companies over the past eight years, and a conclusion emerged: the first business to be scaled up was transportation such as cable cars, ropeways, and sightseeing vehicles. How to retain tourists longer to increase secondary spending was another answer for revenue growth. In the past two years, new experiences such as internet-famous costumed performers and sports events have become a trend.

01 The "Second Curve" Hidden on the Way Up the Mountain

Beyond tickets, the first business to be scaled up was transportation. Judging from the financial reports of listed companies such as Huangshan Tourism Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Huangshan Tourism), LiJiang YuLong Tourism Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as LiJiang Shares), and Changbai Mountain Tourism Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Changbai Mountain) over the past eight years, one fairly obvious common point is that transportation-related businesses have become an important part of the revenue structure of scenic areas, and are often more stable than other non-ticket businesses.

Huangshan Tourism is a relatively typical example. In 2018, the company's cable car and ropeway business revenue was 496 million yuan, accounting for 31% of that year's operating revenue. By 2025, this figure had grown to 842 million yuan, with its share rising to 40%, making it the company's largest single source of revenue. Over the same period, the disclosed "garden development business" revenue (renamed "scenic area business" starting in 2021) grew from 230 million yuan to 293 million yuan, with its share remaining between 11% and 14%. The "garden development business/scenic area business" here mainly corresponds to ticket-related revenue sharing from Huangshan Scenic Area and is not equivalent to the full amount tourists actually pay for tickets. But from the revenue structure, at least, it can be seen that ticket-related revenue has changed little in scale over many years, while transportation-related revenue has continued to expand.

More noteworthy is the profitability of transportation-related businesses. In 2018, the gross margin of Huangshan Tourism's cable car and ropeway business reached 86.74%, and by 2025 it was still 75.2%.

LiJiang Shares shows a similar structure. In 2018, the company's ropeway transportation business revenue was 390 million yuan, accounting for 58% of operating revenue, with a gross margin of 84.24%. In September of that year, the Yunnan Provincial Price Bureau announced a reduction in the price of the Yulong Snow Mountain tourist passenger ropeway. The company noted in its financial report that the price adjustment had a significant impact on its operating performance in the fourth quarter of that year. But the price decline did not reduce the importance of transportation-related business in the scenic area's revenue structure. In 2025, LiJiang Shares' ropeway transportation business revenue was still 407 million yuan, accounting for 47% of operating revenue, with a gross margin of 84.72%. Over eight years, it has remained one of the company's most important sources of revenue.

Changbai Mountain's transportation-related business is even more prominent. In 2018, the company's tourist operations business (later renamed "tourism passenger transport business") revenue was 323 million yuan, accounting for 70% of operating revenue. In 2025, it reached 520 million yuan, accounting for 66%. According to the financial report, tourism passenger transport is Changbai Mountain's core business, mainly involving tourist transport within the three scenic areas of Changbai Mountain, tourism vehicle leasing, parking lot management, and other businesses.

LiJiang Gemu Goddess Mountain | Image source: Photo by Huang Yiting

From these cases, there is a very practical reason why transportation-related businesses became the "second curve": among the various businesses in scenic areas, transportation projects such as cable cars, ropeways, and sightseeing vehicles often have relatively rigid demand and also relatively high operating efficiency.

For mountain-type scenic areas such as Huangshan, Yulong Snow Mountain, and Changbai Mountain, the core landscapes are not in places tourists can reach at will. Cable cars, ropeways, scenic buses, and sightseeing vehicles are themselves infrastructure in the touring chain, and it is difficult for tourists to completely avoid them after entering the scenic area. This business model can even affect the spatial design of scenic areas. Some scenic areas place tourist distribution centers and parking lots outside the core scenic area, and some have expanded outward by more than ten or even dozens of kilometers just to stop private cars at the gate, then complete internal transfers through shuttle buses, ropeways, or sightseeing vehicles. This has also made "scenic area gates being built farther and farther away" a topic that has occasionally been discussed in recent years.

In 2023, Sohu News' Sixiang Studio drew attention to the phenomenon of scenic area "gates being built farther and farther away, with small transportation endlessly harvesting tourists," using Qinghai's Chaka Salt Lake Scenic Area as an example. The ticket for Chaka Salt Lake is only 60 yuan, but if visitors follow the officially recommended touring method, the actual ticket plus small transportation spending needs to be nearly 200 yuan per person. Even if they choose the relatively cheaper train in and out, each person still needs to spend 170 yuan to complete the visit. On this basis, Sixiang Studio calculated that the price per kilometer of the salt lake scenic area's small train was as high as 15.63 yuan, while China's G-series high-speed rail ticket price is only 0.46 yuan per kilometer, a 30-fold difference between the two.

For another example, in 2024, China Newsweek reported a controversy over transportation charges at the Yellow River Stone Forest Scenic Area in Gansu. After tourists enter the scenic area, private cars cannot continue deeper, and they need to purchase transportation services including shuttle buses and sightseeing vehicles. Reasons given by the scenic area included increased visitor numbers, limited parking capacity, and safety management.

This is the other side of the "second curve" of transportation. It can indeed bring stable revenue to scenic areas, but that does not mean all transportation charges are acceptable to tourists. Especially when transportation becomes a necessary link for entering core attractions, price, service, and charging methods can easily affect tourists' perception of the scenic area's overall pricing.

For scenic areas, transportation is a relatively mature and stable business, but it is not the endpoint. What truly determines whether a scenic area can move from a "ticket economy" to an "industrial economy" is whether tourists, after arriving, can stay a few more hours, stay one more night, and during that time, how many things they are willing to continue paying for.

02 Finding Ways to Make Tourists Stay

In the past, the touring logic of scenic areas was relatively simple: buy a ticket, see the sights, take photos, and leave after a few hours. Tourists' stay time was limited, and beyond tickets and transportation, it was difficult to generate more spending. Under this logic, dining, shopping, accommodation, and entertainment experiences became the answers scenic areas found for revenue growth.

Wang Binshan, deputy secretary-general of the Planning Committee of the China Tourist Attractions Association and deputy chief planner of Tsinghua Tongheng Planning and Design Research Institute, calls this type of revenue secondary spending. Among the five listed companies we reviewed that separately disclosed hotel business revenue, four saw the share of hotel business revenue rise significantly over the past eight years. For example, Jiangsu Tianmu Lake Tourism Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Tianmu Lake) had hotel revenue of 95 million yuan in 2018, accounting for 19% of operating revenue. In 2025, hotel revenue reached 154 million yuan, with its share rising to 30%. Over the same period, the share of scenic area business revenue fell from 74% to 51%. The share of hotel business revenue at LiJiang Shares, Changbai Mountain, and Xi'an Qujiang Cultural Tourism Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Qujiang Cultural Tourism (rights protection)) also showed a similar upward trend.

When a scenic area hotel sells a room, it is actually selling more than just one night. If a tourist stays one more night, that means one more meal, one more hot spring visit, or one more performance. The original few-hour sightseeing itinerary is stretched into two days and one night, and only then does the scenic area have more opportunities to keep spending within its operating scope. Hotels therefore become a link connecting tickets and other spending.

But doing more secondary consumption does not necessarily mean scenic areas earn more. In 2025, Qujiang Cultural Tourism's hotel and catering business revenue was about 240 million yuan, accounting for 25% of operating revenue, but its gross margin was only 4.9%.

Performance in Lugu Lake Scenic Area | Image source: Photo by Huang Yiting

Therefore, to make tourists willing to stay and spend more, scenic areas still need to find consumption scenarios worth paying for and worth investing in. The Wuzhen Scenic Area operated by CYTS made such attempts relatively early. In 2019, Wuzhen received 9.1826 million visitors, up only 0.35% year on year, but full-year operating revenue reached 2.179 billion yuan, up 14.39% year on year, and net profit was 807 million yuan, up 9.97% year on year. This meant that each visitor generated more spending. Under industry conditions such as intensifying competition and falling ticket prices, it did not rely solely on tickets and traditional sightseeing, but turned the scenic area into a place that could continuously generate topics.

For example, the conference facilities and service capabilities brought by the World Internet Conference continued to be used to host various meetings and events. The Wuzhen Theater Festival became an independent cultural IP, and the Mu Xin Art Museum continued to hold art activities. Wucun added leisure products such as parent-child activities, summer camps, rice-field pools, and folk song classes. Tourists can come to Wuzhen for a conference, or come again for the theater festival. They can stay inside the scenic area and take their children to Wucun for a holiday.

Under this trend, what scenic areas operate is no longer just an attraction, but a complete period of time belonging to tourists. However, hotels, hot springs, and traditional performances such as Impression Lijiang and the Romance of the Song Dynasty series are essentially relatively fixed products. How to give tourists an immersive experience has become a new trend in the past two years.

"What is needed now is an immersive experience, letting tourists go from 'just taking a look' to 'staying a while longer.' Through interactive projects, immersive performances, cultural displays, and so on, tourists can feel, participate, gain a deeper understanding of local culture, and truly enter the environment," said Wang Binshan.

Internet-famous costumed performers are one typical example. According to Qujiang Cultural Tourism's financial report, in 2024, the company's scenic area operation and management business accounted for about 52% of revenue. The scenic areas it manages, such as Tang Paradise, Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, and Grand Tang Mall, already have mature performance products such as Dreaming Back to the Tang Dynasty, Chasing Dreams of the Tang Dynasty, and Dreaming of Chang'an. At the same time, the company continues to add "interactive entertainment" content. "Tumbler Girl" and "Tang Dynasty Secret Box" are two of its most widely known IPs.

The "Tumbler Girl," who became famous in 2019, did not change the architecture, historical relics, or street length of Grand Tang Mall, but it gave tourists a concrete reason to visit: to hold hands once with the "Tumbler Girl." At that time, the "Tumbler" topic at Grand Tang Mall gained widespread dissemination on social platforms, and large numbers of tourists often gathered in the performance area during show times.

The "Tumbler" performance at Grand Tang Mall | Image source: Grand Tang Mall official

Beyond "shaking hands once" with an internet-famous costumed performer, tourists entering Kaifeng Wansui Mountain Martial Arts City can experience much more immersively. Waiters in shops on the street will actively start conversations, and tourists can play finger-guessing games and accept tasks. Characters keep appearing in different areas, and performances and interactions are interspersed along the touring route. The scenic area has more than 2,000 performers and staff, and daily performances and interactive activities can reach more than 3,000. On social platforms, the single topic "Wansui Mountain NPC" alone has more than 520 million views.

Immersive experiential touring lengthens stay time and enriches consumption scenarios. In the first half of 2025, Wansui Mountain Martial Arts City received 10.242 million visitors and achieved comprehensive revenue of 604 million yuan, up 162% year on year.

Sports events follow a similar logic. In 2021, Qujiang Cultural Tourism included sports project business in its main business scope, including large-scale road running and trail running events, as well as business travel services, online malls, and event technical services. By 2025, revenue from this business was about 176 million yuan, accounting for about 18% of the company's revenue. A marathon brings more than just registration revenue. Participants need to arrive early, and there are clear needs for accommodation, dining, and transportation. After the race, they may continue touring the city. For scenic areas and cities, events are equivalent to actively creating a group of tourists who are highly likely to stay there for one or two days.

03 Tickets Have Not Disappeared, They Have Just Become the Starting Point

Eight years later, the revenue structure of scenic areas has become more diversified. Judging from the several listed companies we reviewed, the share of ticket-related revenue and gross margin have indeed fluctuated, but new revenue has not simply replaced tickets, and will not. Huangshan Tourism is a typical example. In 2018, its scenic area business revenue (here, "scenic area business" mainly corresponds to ticket-related revenue sharing from Huangshan Scenic Area and is not equivalent to the full amount tourists actually pay for tickets) accounted for 14% of operating revenue. After ticket price adjustments, in 2025 it still accounted for 14%, with a gross margin of 46.46%. In 2025, its hotel revenue was 492 million yuan, with a gross margin of 32.57%; transportation revenue was 842 million yuan, with a gross margin of 75.2%. Hotels and transportation have made the revenue structure richer, but have not replaced the scenic area's own core profitability.

Wang Binshan believes that for A-level scenic areas, a relatively healthy revenue structure is one in which ticket revenue and secondary consumption each account for half. But currently, not many scenic areas can truly achieve such a structure. Most scenic areas still rely mainly on tickets.

"Behind this is actually the fact that China's tourism products were centered on 'sightseeing' for a long time in the past. When many old scenic areas were first designed, the idea was for tourists to buy tickets, quickly see the core attractions, and then leave. Their space, facilities, management, and services were all designed around the sightseeing economy. Scenic areas had already made money through tickets, so tourists leaving quickly actually meant more batches could be cycled through in a day," said Wang Binshan.

The real change over the past eight years may not be that scenic areas found some revenue that can replace tickets, but that the position of tickets in scenic area revenue has changed. For a scenic area with scarce natural landscapes and cultural heritage, tickets are still a fee tourists pay for core resources. In scenic areas such as Huangshan, Yulong Snow Mountain, and Changbai Mountain, the landscape itself is the main reason tourists travel hundreds of kilometers to come. Tickets remain the basic foundation for scenic areas, but scenic areas can no longer complete a commercial loop with just that one payment. Tickets are changing from the endpoint into the starting point.

References: 1. Jingzhe Research Institute: "After Giving Up Easy Money, Scenic Areas Are Winning Big" 2. China Newsweek: "Scenic Area Gates Are Being Built Farther and Farther Away. Is This Behind-the-Scenes Money Grabbing?" 3. Sohu Sixiang Studio: "New Ways for Scenic Areas to Make Money: Gates Farther Away, Small Transportation Endlessly Harvesting Tourists" This article is reprinted from the public account: Mirror Studio, author: Huang Yiting. Original title: "Beyond Tickets, What Else Are Scenic Areas Relying on to Make Money?"