Modern transformation of cultural and tourism industry

On the Chilechuan Grassland, a popular scenic spot on the outskirts of Hohhot in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Zhang Qian, a tourist from southern Guangdong province, wears a traditional Mongolian dress as she joins a poetry event around a bonfire beneath a star-filled sky.

A gentle breeze carries the fragrance of fresh grass across the plain, while, in the distance, a rock band performs Mongolian songs. On her smartphone, the weather app indicates excellent air quality, with a PM10 concentration of just 23 micrograms per cubic meter.

This vivid scene reflects not only the transformation of Inner Mongolia's tourism economy from one driven by ticket sales to one centered on immersive experiences, but also the region's broader progress in ecological restoration, industrial upgrading and cultural revitalization.

Against the broader backdrop of Chinese modernization, Inner Mongolia has embraced cultural-tourism integration to explore a high-quality development model that integrates increased production, higher living standards and healthy ecosystems. This serves as a practical and replicable example for the modernization of China's cultural and tourism industry.

From 'passing through' to 'fully immersed'

High-quality development in tourism represents far more than an increase in the number of visitors. It reflects a fundamental shift from a resource-driven model toward one that creates richer experiences and greater value.

For many years, the traditional tourism industry followed a linear formula: resources generated visitor flows, which in turn generated ticket revenue. As consumer demand has evolved from simply "having attractions to visit" toward seeking higher-quality and more memorable experiences, and from merely "seeing the sights" to genuinely engaging with the local culture, the limitations of this model have become increasingly apparent.

Inner Mongolia's experience demonstrates that the essence of high-quality tourism development lies in transforming transient tourism into destination-based consumption by redesigning tourism products and extending the value chain. At its core is the cultivation of new quality productive forces powered by immersive experiences.

Arxan offers a compelling example of this transformation. Once a small border city whose economy relied heavily on forest resources and seasonal tourism, with visitors' average stay being less than 10 hours, in recent years, the city has broken away from its dependence on just natural scenery by developing a range of immersive tourism products, including a leisure district, a hot spring resort and a forest snowfield recreation area. It has also integrated urban and scenic areas through themed travel routes featuring forest trains, historical port exploration and traditional forest-community experiences.

By 2024, the average length of stay by tourists had increased to 2.5 days. The peak tourism season was extended by nearly two months. In 2025, the city received a total of 6.38 million tourist visits, representing a year-on-year increase of 10.66 percent. Tourism revenue reached 8.22 billion yuan ($1.21 billion), up 11.69 percent from the previous year.

These numbers have generated more consumption opportunities and produced stronger multiplier effects across the local economy — a hallmark of high-quality tourism development.

The transformation of the Chilechuan Grassland in Hohhot tells a similar story. The region has evolved into a contemporary cultural destination through innovative programs such as "grassland + performance", "grassland + self-drive tourism" and "grassland + study tours". By turning a natural landscape into a recognizable cultural brand, Chilechuan has successfully elevated its brand.

These micro-level cases confirm a general principle: when cultural tourism products move beyond a singular reliance on natural endowments and integrate cultural depth, technological elements and experiential design, they can achieve a value upgrade from "selling scenery" to "selling a way of life".

From 'isolated development' to 'regional networks'

The cultural tourism industry naturally entails cross-regional synergies. For Inner Mongolia — a vast, sparsely populated region with scattered resources, promoting coordinated regional development through cultural tourism integration is a strategic challenge.

In recent years, the region has leveraged its distinctive geography — stretching narrowly from east to west across immense territory — by breaking down administrative barriers and building a comprehensive tourism landscape, enabling differentiated positioning and coordinated growth among its areas.

For example, Ulaanqab offers a model of "capital-driven synergy with local distinctiveness". Tapping into its geographical advantage — "one step west from Beijing brings you to Ulaanqab", the city has adopted an integrated approach combining volcanoes, grasslands, technology and culture, cultivating diversified offerings such as self-drive tours, camping and homestays, and establishing one of North China's largest volcano camping clusters.

In 2025, Ulaanqab received 25.20 million domestic visitors, a year-on-year increase of 12.99 percent, with total domestic tourism expenditure reaching 29.65 billion yuan, up 11.34 percent. Many visitors were from the surrounding Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and most of the visitors were self-drive travelers, demonstrating that when regional transport networks are effectively aligned with tourism product systems, a "transit" can indeed be transformed into a "destination".

The Laoniuwan Yellow River Grand Canyon exemplifies the transformation chain from "cultural resources" to "brand IP" to "industrial drivers". As the first bend of the Yellow River where it enters Shanxi province, Laoniuwan was once hidden deep in the mountains, with per capita annual income in surrounding villages below 3,000 yuan.

In recent years, by integrating Yellow River culture, Great Wall culture and local folk heritage, it has been drawing visitors; in 2025 it received over 1.4 million tourists, with tourism revenue growing by 122 percent. This has directly stimulated the development of homestays, agritainment establishments and other related industries in surrounding villages. The annual income of local villagers has risen from around 10,000 to 20,000 yuan in the past to an average of 100,000 yuan.

Laoniuwan's success lies not only in the uniqueness of its natural landscape but also in the power of cultural content dissemination to drive tourism consumption, revealing a deeper rule of cultural-tourism integration: culture is the soul, tourism the body and only when the two are fused can development be sustainable.

Inner Mongolia is now advancing the coordinated development of cultural tourism resources across its eastern, central and western zones. The eastern zone, with its forests, grasslands and ice-snow resources, is being developed into an eco-wellness and border cultural tourism experience belt.

The central zone, leveraging the capital economic circle and cultural assets, is fostering urban leisure and cultural and creative industry clusters. The western zone, featuring deserts, the Yellow River, and industrial heritage, is building distinctive experiential and study-travel destinations.

From 'resource dependence' to 'digital-driven growth'

In the cultural tourism sector, the value of technological innovation lies not merely in improving operational efficiency, but more importantly in reshaping consumer experiences, pioneering new supply models and injecting new quality productive forces into the industry. Given its vast territory and scattered resources, Inner Mongolia has seized upon digital reform as a lever to drive comprehensive, full-chain digital transformation across its cultural tourism sector.

Launched in November 2025, the "iTravel Inner Mongolia" smart cultural and tourism public service platform covers 478 A-grade scenic spots, 476 cultural and museum venues and 101 star-rated hotels, integrating the full spectrum of "food, accommodation, transport, sightseeing, shopping and entertainment" resources to deliver a seamless "one mobile phone for touring Inner Mongolia" experience.

Through the platform, visitors can check real-time crowd conditions at scenic spots, book tickets, reserve hotels, purchase cultural and creative products, and even schedule door-to-door performances by the Ulan Muqir, the Mongolian name for troupes that travel from one site to another.

The deeper significance of this platform lies in its ability to digitally consolidate cultural and tourism resources scattered across 1.18 million square kilometers of land, breaking down information silos and enhancing resource allocation efficiency. By July 2026, the platform had amassed 240,000 users.

Meanwhile, the "Cloud Tour Ordos" platform demonstrates the commercial conversion power of digital platforms. By the end of 2025, it had more than 2.4 million users, with total transaction volume reaching 1.55 billion yuan.

On the cultural experience front, the Hongshan Culture Museum in Chifeng employs holographic projection and virtual reality technologies to recreate scenes of daily life from 6,000 years ago, allowing visitors to "travel back" to prehistoric times and engage in activities such as pottery-making and hunting.

The Inner Mongolia Museum's "Mobile Digital Museum" exhibition vehicle has conducted millimeter-precision three-dimensional scans of over 1,000 precious artifacts. As it tours 12 leagues and cities and 103 banners and counties, it is enabling residents in remote areas to appreciate rare cultural treasures up close without ever setting foot in a museum. Digital technology has thus freed cultural heritage from the constraints of time and space.

Deep-seated challenges and the path forward

Despite notable achievements, the modernization of Inner Mongolia's cultural tourism industry continues to face multiple deep-seated challenges. The "digital divide" remains pronounced, with digital infrastructure in some banners, townships and villages still relatively weak.

Content homogenization also persists as a risk, with insufficient differentiation among grassland sightseeing, folk performances and similar offerings. The seasonal bottleneck has not been fundamentally resolved, as tourism remains heavily concentrated in summer and autumn, while winter product offerings are still inadequate. There is also a relative shortage of interdisciplinary talents who understand both culture and technology, and who are equally adept at operations and innovation.

Looking ahead, Inner Mongolia's cultural and tourism sector must continue to make concerted efforts along the following dimensions in order to forge a path of cultural and tourism modernization that bears Chinese characteristics and reflects the distinctive realities of a border region.

First, it is necessary to accelerate the application of cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence large language models and immersive experiences and promote the use of digital technology across the entire chain — from product development and service enhancement to market regulation.

Priority should be given to cultivating new business forms such as digital experience offerings, smart tourism and online performances, with the goal of building a portfolio of digital cultural and tourism IPs with national influence.

Second, establish an "all-region and all-season" framework to address seasonal and regional imbalances. Enrich the mix of year-round products, including ice-snow tourism, hot spring wellness, industrial tourism and museum-based study tours.

During the 2025-26 ice-snow tourism season, 159 special activities and 45 winter-themed tour routes have already been rolled out, transforming "cold resources" into a "hot industry".

Continue to advance the coordinated development of cultural and tourism resources across eastern, central and western Inner Mongolia, fostering a broad landscape of differentiated specialization and synergistic growth.

Third, strengthen the people-centered approach to ensure that the fruits of cultural and tourism development benefit the public. Promote rural vitalization models in various villages, encouraging farmers and herders to increase their incomes and build prosperity through participation in the cultural and tourism industry.

Fourth, the cultural and tourism industry is increasingly becoming an effective vehicle for forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation. Going forward, greater efforts should be made to tap into historical and cultural resources that reflect the interactions, exchanges and integration among all ethnic groups, and to develop a range of cultural and tourism products that embody the essence of Chinese culture while highlighting distinctive regional characteristics, enabling visitors to deepen their identification with Chinese culture through immersive experiences.

On the new journey of building a modern socialist country in all respects, Inner Mongolia's cultural and tourism practices offer an important insight: border regions need not be the "periphery" of modernization, instead, they can very well become the "frontier" of innovative exploration; nor is the cultural and tourism industry a "supporting actor" in the economy, it can step into the "leading role" of high-quality development.

When the grassland breeze sweeps across the strings of digitalization, and when ancient civilizations embrace contemporary modes of expression, Inner Mongolia is composing a grand narrative of development and transformation, tradition and innovation, and the mutual reinforcement of local endeavors and national aspirations.

The author is secretary-general of the Inner Mongolia Academy of Social Sciences.

The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

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