Popular attractions are no longer packed, and tourist-heavy cities are seeing fewer visitors. Throughout the 2026 summer break, a recurring question has emerged in travel circles: where have all the tourists gone? Meanwhile, a growing number of parents from first-tier cities are appearing in small counties with their children in tow.
These parents are choosing destinations within a four-hour drive, offering upscale hotels or boutique guesthouses, family rooms, swimming pools, and ideally, kids' club services. The surroundings are scenic, peaceful, and refreshingly free of the crowds found at trendy hotspots. It's not that no one is traveling this summer—they've simply chosen different places. The logic behind summer family vacations has shifted.
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"You can stroll the streets without a care in the world," says one parent. Unfamiliar leafy greens, fragrant triangular rice cakes, colorful fresh fruit juices, and traditional ethnic attire brighter than the beverages—all captured the imagination of a 6-year-old girl on a trip with her mother, Meimei. An elderly woman offered a giant frog for the child to touch, free of charge, sparking endless curiosity.
This summer, Shanghai-based Meimei skipped an overseas trip for her child and instead returned to her hometown in Kunming, spending a week in Lancang County under Pu'er. The mother-daughter duo slept in, wandered the streets, visited a border market, picked tea leaves in ancient gardens, and chatted with villagers while learning to make rice cakes and barbecue. "It's incredibly chill—a kind of relaxation where you don't have to overthink anything," Meimei says. With few tourists around, there were no lines to worry about. The scenery was stunning, the weather pleasant, and costs low. For city kids, everything felt new and exciting. "They got grounded in nature, ethnic culture, and intangible heritage—isn't that better than going abroad?" she adds.
This summer, heading to obscure counties for family getaways, the more niche the better, has become a silent code among parents in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Behind this "like-minded" trend lies a new family vacation philosophy—no longer chasing world exploration, as they've already seen it, and avoiding packed attractions and major IPs due to poor experiences. What matters more is the relaxed, authentic, and natural environment these counties offer, along with the chance to nurture parent-child bonds in a stress-free setting.
Data from Qunar Travel shows that in summer 2026, hotel bookings on the platform covered over 1,000 counties, with family stays of three or more nights up 20% year-over-year. Of those booking county hotels, 70% were out-of-province tourists, with Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, and Chongqing ranking as top source cities. Note: Statistics include counties and county-level cities. Dali, Yining, and Kashgar are county-level cities under Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, and Kashgar Prefecture, respectively.
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Meimei's biggest expense this trip was the hotel. Lancang has recently seen the rise of several holiday hotels and high-end guesthouses, a key factor in her choice. "I wanted a comfortable stay since it's a vacation, not a hardship," she says. She booked a family room at a holiday hotel a month in advance, paying over 1,000 yuan per night including breakfast and afternoon tea. The hotel featured a pool for her child to burn off energy, a kids' club with childcare, and organized study activities like hiking and crafts. Meimei found time for yoga, reading, or simply relaxing alone.
Is spending so much on a county hotel worth it? Meimei calculated her total costs: flights and trains for the round trip came to nearly 3,000 yuan, and the hotel ran to over 8,000 yuan, but local expenses were minimal. Overall, the trip was still cheaper than going abroad. "The key is the quality of food and lodging. In a foreign country or a first-tier city, a hotel of this standard would cost double or more," she notes.
This summer, many county hotels and guesthouses are pricier than those in Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou, yet parents from these cities are still willing to pay. Qunar data indicates that bookings for four-star and above hotels in counties grew by double digits year-over-year, with high-star hotels now accounting for 23% of all county hotel bookings. Parents in their 80s are spending the most, with an average payment of 526 yuan per night. Family rooms are especially in demand, and the average lead time for county hotel bookings has risen from 5.9 to 7.1 days.
The Anti-Traffic Logic: Choosing Counties That Haven't Caught On Yet
In recent years, "county tourism" has become a new trend. Some counties have turned into internet sensations: Taijiang County in Guizhou gained fame from the "Village BA" basketball league, Zibo's barbecue went viral, and Tianshui in the northwest exploded after its malatang hot pot became a hit. Nationwide, county tourism officials are searching for the "traffic code," branding these destinations as cheap, lively, and trending. But this summer's wave of middle-class family trips reveals a completely different logic.
"Since my hometown is in Yunnan, I asked local friends which places were worth visiting but hadn't become popular yet," Meimei says. Many of her peers follow the same approach: pick destinations with strong local reputations that haven't yet blown up on social media. Qunar data shows that the fastest-growing hotel booking counties this summer are relatively "off-the-beaten-path" spots. For example, Chayu County in Tibet saw bookings more than double year-over-year, while Jiali in Tibet, Qianshan in Jiangxi, Zhenfeng in Guizhou, Tian'e in Guangxi, and Wuqiao in Hebei all saw 1.5-fold increases. Huixian in Henan, Xingyi in Guizhou, Zhaojue in Sichuan, and Cengong in Guizhou also saw over 100% growth.
These destinations share common traits: easy access, mature hotel infrastructure, and beautiful scenery with plenty to do. The earliest beneficiaries of this middle-class influx are reputable counties near first-tier cities. Qunar data shows that the counties with the highest average hotel prices this summer are mostly within a four-hour drive of Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou. For instance, Changli County in Hebei, near Beijing and home to the Aranya resort, saw average nightly rates of 835 yuan, while Luanping County, with the Jinshanling Great Wall, averaged over 750 yuan—both well above Beijing's prices. Anji and Deqing in Zhejiang, near Shanghai, have become long-standing high-end guesthouse hubs, averaging over 600 yuan per night. Around Guangzhou, Fogang and Longmen counties leverage hot springs and landscapes to meet the summer demand of Greater Bay Area families, with Fogang's average nightly rate hitting 870 yuan, the highest among all counties nationwide.
Navigating the Pain Points of County Tourism Post-Influx
With easy transportation, high-quality accommodations, mature family offerings, authentic yet fun experiences, and low tourist density with high comfort, middle-class families expect more from county travel than ever before. "Transport and lodging in counties have improved a lot, lowering the physical barriers and letting us venture into counties in Yunnan, Guizhou, Xinjiang, and Tibet," Meimei says. "But the main hurdle is trip planning and local information access, which still need work." She cites her own journey: flying from Shanghai to Kunming, taking a train to Pu'er, then a car to Lancang—a cumbersome trip she arranged herself. Lancang's markets aren't daily, and with many tea gardens and ancient villages, choosing where to go requires significant research.
"Hardware has improved a lot in county tourism, but software often lags behind," says Xiao Ou, who runs guesthouses across Guizhou. He gives an example: his guesthouse wants to offer children's daycare, but there are no mature one-day study tour providers locally. Businesses operate in silos, with poor communication among hotels, restaurants, attractions, and villages. Guesthouses also struggle to bridge the "last few dozen kilometers" from prefecture-level airports and stations to counties, facing issues with operating licenses, staffing, and liability. Additionally, online information about counties is highly polarized, with a lack of practical family-focused guidance. "For example, is it suitable for young kids? Can you push a stroller on mountain roads? Are there emergency medical points? What can you do on rainy days? There's a huge gap in real, practical, and cautionary info online," Xiao Ou adds.
County tourist volumes are also highly unstable, with stark seasonal peaks and troughs. During off-seasons, visitor numbers plummet, and many food and service businesses shut down entirely, preventing a stable, year-round service ecosystem. This "seasonal" model directly undermines service quality.
"Platforms can play a major role in county tourism development, not just selling flights and hotels but acting as a 'connector' for county getaways," says Ren Fen, Party Secretary and Vice President of Qunar Travel. This year, Qunar launched its "Treasure Hundred Counties" strategy, empowering county tourism through transportation links, information filtering, local resource integration, and off-season product development. The goal is to piece together the fragmented resources of county tourism, turning scattered points into mature itineraries. Qunar data shows that this summer, search interest in "Treasure Hundred Counties" products grew 226% year-over-year. Xingyi in Guizhou, which jumped to second in national popularity this year, saw bookings for its "peak forest plus canyon" itineraries double.