Spring Festival Cultural Tourism Market "Playing" with New Tech Innovations

New Year’s Eve morning, the crowds surged inside Wansui Mountain Martial Arts City in Kaifeng, Henan. NPCs (real people dressed as various characters) moved through the area, interacting and chatting with visitors. On the evening of the fifth day of the lunar new year, Tang Seng and his disciples reenacted the journey to the West at the steep slope pond in Huangguoshu Scenic Area, with changing lights coloring the waterfall anew. The ancient city of Pingyao in Shanxi was filled with festive atmosphere, where bionic robots performed martial arts in exhibition halls, drawing amazement and applause from visitors…

During the Year of the Horse Spring Festival, reporters found that cultural tourism markets across various regions were in full swing, exploring new paths of integration through diversified cultural and tourism products. With immersive performances, digital technology experiences, and other new scenes, the cultural tourism market is revitalizing with new energy.

From “Sightseeing” to “Immersive Storytelling”

Immersive NPC interactions, large-scale performances, folk experiences, and specialty markets… During this Spring Festival, “experience” has become the new key to attracting visitors to cultural tourism attractions and theme parks.

Since the popularity of “Wang Po’s Matchmaking” in 2024, Wansui Mountain Martial Arts City in Kaifeng has continued to attract visitors from across the country. From 2024 to 2025, the annual revenue of the scenic area increased from 80 million yuan to 1.27 billion yuan.

Early on New Year’s Day, Xiao Lin (pseudonym), a resident of Heze, Shandong, drove over two hours with her family to Kaifeng, specifically to visit Wansui Mountain Martial Arts City. She told Securities Daily that what attracted her most was interacting with NPCs. “This is my first time here, and there are really many performances, one after another,” she said.

According to Wansui Mountain Martial Arts City, during the Spring Festival, the area staged over 4,000 performances daily, launching more than 100 new festive shows that incorporated themes from Water Margin, fantasy, rural landscapes, martial arts, and modern elements to meet the diverse needs of visitors. The overall atmosphere, stage layouts, visitor flow arrangements, photo props, large-scale performances, and individual NPC interactions all brought surprises to visitors.

To accommodate the surge of tourists during the holiday, Longting District in Kaifeng coordinated local resources, opening 11 government offices and parking lots for free during the holiday period.

“Facing increased visitors, we ensure quality service and create a high-cost-performance scenic area, welcoming visitors with smiles,” said Mr. Wang, staff at Wansui Mountain Martial Arts City. The park increased patrols by the “Jinyiwei” patrol team, Blue Sky rescue team, professional security, and cleaning staff to handle emergencies and maintain cleanliness and order. Additionally, the park uses big data traffic control systems to monitor visitor flow in real time, guiding and dispersing crowds scientifically to prevent overcrowding.

In Nanzheng, Zhengzhou, the first-ever garden tour during the Spring Festival also offered visitors new experiences. From the Root-seeking Gate to the Ancestor Worship Square, various performances took turns, and visitors could interact with fun NPCs to earn “silver tickets,” which could be exchanged at the market for local delicacies, toys, and New Year gifts. The ancestor worship ceremony at the square attracted many visitors to participate.

“I live nearby, and I bought tickets specifically to experience the ancestor worship ceremony,” said Ms. Yang, a local resident of Nanzheng.

“I just experienced the ancestor worship ceremony at Huangdi’s hometown. The ceremony was very solemn, and I would recommend my friends come here,” said Mr. Li from Wuhan.

Dianqian Wenlv, the on-site executive manager of Daqian Cultural Tourism, told Securities Daily that this year, the scenic area added lantern displays, real NPCs, folk performances, and other elements. They also introduced “silver tickets” and exchange props to increase entertainment and fun. A food festival was set up at the Root-seeking Gate to enhance the experience. During the first five days of the lunar new year, the surrounding area saw an average daily flow of about 50,000 visitors, with around 20,000 visitors entering the park each day.

Empowering Traditional Culture with New Technologies

“This year, I saw many robots on the Spring Festival Gala, but I didn’t expect to see them again in an ancient city! And they can interact offline, which is really interesting,” said Ms. Han, a tourist visiting Pingyao Ancient City in Shanxi, taking photos with robots and expressing her amazement.

In the Year of the Horse, the 2,800-year-old world cultural heritage site Pingyao Ancient City was decorated with red lanterns and fireworks, blending traditional heritage with modern technology to revitalize the historic site. The 2026 “Pingyao Chinese New Year” event will include intangible cultural heritage markets, lantern festivals, and tech shows, with the biomimetic robot performance being a key technological highlight. Inside the old cotton mill courtyard on Xida Street, the robots performed traditional programs like martial arts, dance, and lion dances with precise, smooth movements, interacting playfully with visitors and drawing cheers.

Besides lively robot performances, technology elements are everywhere in Pingyao Ancient City. The most representative is the SoReal Truthful Pingyao Tech Art Museum (hereafter “Pingyao Tech Art Museum”). As the only project in Shanxi selected as a pilot for immersive smart tourism experience spaces nationwide, it was transformed from an old cotton mill site, revitalizing the old factory and becoming a new digital cultural tourism landmark in Pingyao.

The Pingyao Tech Art Museum uses XR, multimedia interactive projection, anti-gravity fountains, and other cutting-edge technologies to incorporate local history and cultural arts into its themes. Visitors can enjoy a 40-minute immersive experience that fully showcases Pingyao’s cultural charm.

“Before, I only visited the old streets and city walls in Pingyao. This time, experiencing the tech art museum made me realize that traditional culture can be ‘brought to life’ in such ways,” said Mr. Ya from Taiyuan, Shanxi. “Technology makes culture more vivid,” he added.

Song Xiangqing, Vice President of the China Society of Business Economics, told Securities Daily that regions are using digital means and immersive, interactive experiences to precisely meet tourists’ demand for deep engagement. Technology provides new ways to express traditional culture, enabling “old scenic spots” to retain their heritage while achieving a “second activation” of market appeal.

At Huangguoshu Scenic Area in Guizhou, known for its natural landscapes, the excavation of cultural IPs and the application of modern technology have also revitalized the scenery. On the noon of the fourth day, drums and gongs sounded in front of the Huangguoshu archway, where characters like Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie danced to music, interacted with visitors, and created a lively atmosphere.

“Before coming, I only knew Huangguoshu Waterfall was spectacular. Now I understand it also has a connection to ‘Journey to the West,’” said Ms. Tao from Beijing, excited after watching a flash NPC performance.

At night, Huangguoshu Scenic Area transforms again. Lights gradually illuminate the steep slope pond waterfall, and the water curtain glows with colorful reflections. The “Revisit Journey to the West” night tour performance begins, with visitors walking along the viewing route, actors performing classic scenes like “Three Attacks on Bai Gu Jing” close to the waterfall, with mechanical devices and water mist effects intertwined. Holographic images are projected onto the waterfall water curtain, creating dynamic light and shadow effects that immerse viewers in the story.

Fu Yifu, a special researcher at the China Merchants Bank, said that technological empowerment and activity innovation are driving the renewal of traditional scenic spots, precisely aligning with the core needs of the experience economy. XR, multimedia projection, and other advanced technologies help traditional attractions craft “new narratives.”

Turning the “Spring Festival heat” into “year-round prosperity”

“This Spring Festival, the cultural tourism market delivered an unexpectedly strong performance,” said Fu Yifu. He believes this is the result of policy dividends, supply-side innovation, and consumption upgrades resonating together, demonstrating the resilience of the cultural tourism industry and indicating that the sector has entered a new stage of high-quality development.

At the policy level, the State Council issued the “Several Measures to Further Cultivate New Growth Points and Prosper Cultural and Tourism Consumption” in 2025, which calls for “creating new consumption scenarios,” explicitly supporting “launching a batch of immersive cultural and tourism new products and scenes,” and “building ultra-high-definition, immersive, interactive performance spaces and digital exhibitions.”

Against this backdrop, various regions are actively enriching cultural tourism consumption formats and scenes. From Wansui Mountain Martial Arts City’s immersive experiences, to Pingyao’s tech art spaces, to Huangguoshu’s IP night tours, the lively scenes behind the Spring Festival are driven by continuous content innovation, technological integration, and operational investments.

The Spring Festival holiday is a concentrated period of cultural tourism demand release. Industry insiders generally believe that for the market, the key is how to convert holiday tourism enthusiasm into sustained consumer momentum.

Song Xiangqing said that transforming tourism “traffic” into continuous economic “increment” depends on building a value closed loop led by IP, extending formats, and coordinating across regions, to achieve a leap from ticket sales to industry ecology. This involves consolidating IP core, transforming culture into experiential and consumable scenes, and improving transportation and service support to turn short-term “check-in” trends into long-term “repeat purchases,” ultimately creating a virtuous cycle of “cultural tourism promoting consumption and consumption boosting industry.”

Fu Yifu suggested that regions should deeply explore local culture and history, such as developing super IPs like Kaifeng Martial Arts City, creating high-engagement experiences like night light shows, extending visitors’ stay and consumption chains; further promoting “cultural tourism +” cross-sector integration, linking performing arts, health and wellness, cultural innovation, and film industries to generate multiplier effects of “tourism prosperity and industry vitality”; and strengthening long-term operation and service upgrades to turn online “internet celebrities” into lasting brands.