Foreign visitors try out Meituan drone food delivery at Shenzhen Talent Park. At present, many inbound tourists are choosing "tech tourism" as the theme for traveling in Chinese cities. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liang Xu. Tourists from Jamaica take part in interactive games at the world's first robot 6S store in Longgang, Shenzhen. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liang Xu. As inbound tourism continues to develop, the itineraries of overseas visitors are gradually changing: they no longer only check in at classic landmarks such as the Great Wall and the Forbidden City. More and more foreign tourists are walking into new-energy super factories, observing intelligent robot exhibitions, and visiting space science popularization sites. Immersively experiencing China's scientific and technological innovation achievements and closely feeling the pulse of industrial development have become a new trend in inbound tourism. "Tech tourism" is becoming a new calling card for overseas visitors to feel the vitality of China's development in the new era.

Tech innovation check-ins go mainstream

For a long time, the Great Wall and the Forbidden City have been classic symbols of China in the minds of overseas tourists. Now, as China's scientific and technological innovation strength continues to rise and its smart manufacturing industry flourishes, cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hangzhou have turned tech factories, innovation parks, and intelligent exhibition halls into distinctive tourism venues. "Tech tourism" products continue to enter major travel agencies and online travel platforms, gradually moving from a niche experience into the public eye. The rise of this new trend stems from the sustained improvement of the global influence of China's manufacturing industry. On the one hand, as made-in-China products go global and Chinese brands accelerate their overseas expansion, a large number of overseas customers, distributors, and partners make special trips to China to visit corporate headquarters and production and R&D frontlines for inspections and research. On the other hand, artificial intelligence, new energy, and high-end manufacturing have built a globally leading industrial ecosystem, and on-site visits and immersive experiences have also become important ways for overseas people to understand industry frontiers and capture development opportunities. Song Changyao, director of the Department of Tourism Management at Beijing International Studies University, analyzed that the key reason for the continued warming of "tech tourism" is the "cost-effectiveness" and "novelty value" of China's scientific and technological innovation. In the process of transforming from "made in China" to "intelligent manufacturing in China," China's tech products are rich in variety, excellent in quality, and accelerating in innovation iteration, accumulating a good global reputation. Experiencing Chinese tech products has gradually become a must-choice for inbound tourism. Liu Xiangyan, director of the International Research Institute of the China Tourism Academy, believes that the overseas expansion of new energy vehicles, the mass production of humanoid robots, and AI technological achievements such as DeepSeek have made "intelligent manufacturing in China" increasingly tangible. The customer structure of the tourism market also confirms this development trend. Li Mengran, media and public relations manager of CJT Travel Group, introduced that the current core customer groups of inbound "tech tourism" are mainly overseas corporate executives, tech practitioners, engineers, and university research teams, with obvious characteristics of being younger and highly educated. These customer groups are no longer satisfied with traditional sightseeing and have a strong desire to explore Chinese scientific and technological innovation application scenarios such as mobile payments, smart travel, and intelligent interaction. Exhibition platforms have further accelerated the integration of scenarios. Relying on exhibition platforms such as the Canton Fair and the World Robot Conference, tourism, business, scientific research, and investment scenarios penetrate each other, promoting the continuous integration of business boundaries. An exhibition often simultaneously combines procurement negotiations, technology observation, industrial inspections, and city experiences, and business travelers naturally develop into cultural tourism travelers. In addition, more and more overseas short-video bloggers coming to China are turning their cameras toward China's new technologies. Their videos documenting Chinese tech application scenarios have gained considerable popularity overseas. World Bank data show that the overall scale of China's manufacturing value added has ranked first in the world for 16 consecutive years. Among the world's 504 major industrial products, China ranks first in output for most of them. International short-video blogger Mike said that technologies still in the laboratory stage in some countries, such as smart transportation and digital production, have already achieved large-scale implementation in China. Coupled with China's complete local infrastructure conditions and strong industrial chain strength, related content has received likes from many overseas fans. Relying on differentiated market demand, tourism companies are precisely positioning segmented tracks and launching different types of distinctive products. For overseas youth study groups, they create fun routes such as interactive experiences at science and technology museums and visits to tech innovation enterprises. For industry practitioners and business customers, they customize in-depth itineraries such as visits to leading enterprises, production line observation, and industry exchange and matchmaking. Data from a certain platform show that booking heat for travel products related to inbound "factory tours" during the summer increased by more than 9 times year on year. In cities such as Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Hangzhou, consultation volumes for experience projects involving AI hardware, humanoid robots, large model applications, and chip testing continue to surge. Fliggy launched a "Intelligent Manufacturing in China" multinational study tour project, and Chunqiu Tourism launched a drone experience route based on Shanghai's scientific and technological innovation resources. Hardcore tech routes have also attracted travel agencies from countries such as Brazil to come for inspections. From looking back at history to perceiving the future, tech innovation scenarios such as Xiaomi car factories, Shenzhen autonomous driving, and space ports have become new check-in hotspots, and the demand dimensions of inbound tourists are constantly enriching.

Consumption patterns upgrade

The vigorous rise of "tech tourism" has not only enriched inbound tourism experience scenarios, but also driven the iterative upgrade of tourism consumption patterns, giving rise to a new "tech shopping" consumption boom. In the past, inbound tourists preferred traditional specialties such as tea and silk. Now, smart wearable devices and smart toys have become souvenirs favored by overseas visitors. The consumption logic of tourists has shifted from "buying commemorative goods" to "taking away a future lifestyle." Liu Zhengxi, a foreign expert from the China Foreign Languages Publishing Administration from Egypt, observed that young tourists from the Arab region are especially fond of good Chinese tech innovation products. Products such as smart translators, high-capacity portable power banks, and high-definition aerial drones are widely welcomed by overseas consumers due to their practical functions, affordable prices, and excellent quality. Many inbound tourists post their personal experiences on overseas social platforms, triggering extensive inquiries from relatives and friends, allowing good Chinese tech products to become popular through word of mouth. Frontline data from the tourism market fully confirm this consumption trend. Feedback from multiple travel agencies shows that inbound "tech tourism" customer groups have strong purchasing power and a relatively high willingness to purchase products such as smart wearable devices, AI robots, smart home appliances, and tech innovation trendy toys. Compared with traditional sightseeing tourists, "tech tourism" tourists have stronger overall consumption willingness, with prominent diversified consumption characteristics of experience check-ins, physical purchases, and in-depth experiences. The Huaqiangbei business district in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, with its complete "one-kilometer AI hardware industry cluster," has become a distinctive tech landmark for inbound tourism. It gathers products such as AI glasses, translation terminals, and robot accessories, integrating tech sightseeing, consumer procurement, industrial research, and supply chain matchmaking, fully leveraging the composite value of "tourism plus business research." Industry insiders say that compared with similar high-priced overseas products, domestic tech innovation products balance quality and cost-effectiveness, fit the daily needs of ordinary people, truly realize technology empowering people's livelihoods and benefiting the world, and let overseas tourists genuinely feel the warmth and strength of Chinese innovation.

Pooling efforts to address shortcomings

"Tech tourism" has opened up new space for the development of inbound tourism, but as an emerging business format, it is still in its initial stage, and shortcomings such as insufficient professional services, an incomplete supporting system, and poor resource matchmaking urgently need to be addressed. From the market level, the development of inbound "tech tourism" faces multiple practical constraints. Li Mengran said that there is currently an extreme shortage of compound tour guide talent who understand cutting-edge technology, are familiar with industrial logic, and are also proficient in foreign languages and skilled at explanation. At the same time, issues such as inconvenient network use and cross-border payment for overseas tourists in China, weak transportation support because many tech innovation parks are located in suburban areas, and limited offline channels for purchasing tech products have constrained the quality and efficiency of industry development. In addition, problems such as product homogeneity and insufficient cultural integration in "tech tourism" products have also affected visitor experiences. In response to industry pain points, companies are exploring paths to break through. Zheng Xueda, inbound tourism director of Chunqiu Tourism, suggested building a regular government-enterprise and enterprise-enterprise matchmaking platform, opening up channels for resource interconnection, route co-construction, and customer source attraction between tech innovation enterprises and the cultural tourism industry, promoting the orderly opening of tech innovation parks, and making frontier tech scenarios an important carrier for international cultural exchange. Policy support continues to empower the development of new business formats. In March this year, nine departments jointly issued the "Policy Measures on Promoting the Export of Travel Services and Expanding Inbound Consumption," proposing to enrich study tourism scenarios and cultivate high-quality study tourism brands. Local governments are actively implementing practices. Hangzhou recently released ten major "new tech specialties" and 20 distinctive tech study tourism routes, launched a dedicated inbound study tourism service platform, and improved the supply of "tech tourism" products. Liu Xiangyan said that "tech tourism" is an important direction for the transformation and upgrading of inbound tourism, and future market growth space is broad. The industry needs to base itself on supply-side reform, promote refined and tiered product development, and customize differentiated experience routes for different customer groups such as teenagers, investors, researchers, and business clients. At the same time, it should move beyond the mindset of "simply looking at technology" and deeply explore the humanistic stories and industrial history behind scientific and technological innovation, so that the touring process has both professionalism and warmth, realizing an upgrade from sightseeing check-ins to in-depth study tours and value experiences. Song Changyao believes that in the future, it is necessary to more accurately identify the development stages and tourist demands of source countries, coordinate and match industrial resources, and improve the level of professional interpretation. This is an important direction for upgrading inbound tourism services. Traditional landscape and cultural sightseeing and new-style tech innovation life experiences together constitute the core map of inbound tourism in the new era. In the future, the high-quality development of inbound tourism requires coordinating the three major dimensions of natural scenery, traditional culture, and modern technology, continuously improving the service system, addressing supporting shortcomings, and innovating product formats, so that inbound tourism becomes an important window for displaying a real, three-dimensional, and comprehensive modern China and continuously releases new vitality in the integration of culture and tourism and the development of scientific and technological innovation.