Recently, Mount Wudang proposed an initiative to designate May 28th as “Family Tourism Day,” launching the year-round “Travel to Wudang’s Immortal Mountains, Win a Fengshen Sedan” campaign and the “Well-being, Longevity, Health, and Peace” series of activities to promote the concept of “Family Tourism.” The tourism industry is a sunrise industry. With its vigorous development, May 19th was established as “China Tourism Day” in 2011. Four years later, the proposal by Mount Wudang to set up “Family Tourism Day” reflects the growth of the tourism market and the transformation of travel consumption patterns.
On May 19th, 2001, Ma Shaoqin from Ninghai, Zhejiang, on behalf of the Ninghai Xu Xiake Tourism Club, issued a public proposal to establish “China Tourism Day,” suggesting that the opening date of Xu Xiake’s Travel Diaries (May 19th) be named China Tourism Day. According to the “Announcement on Soliciting Date Proposals for China Tourism Day,” the purpose of establishing “China Tourism Day” is to strengthen tourism promotion, foster national awareness of leisure and travel, encourage widespread public participation in tourism activities, improve quality of life, and boost the development of the tourism industry.
Nowadays, the tourism industry has achieved rapid development, and travel has become one of the primary lifestyles and economic activities in people's lives. Our focus on the tourism industry has also shifted from simply aiming to stimulate tourism consumption to more comprehensively considering how to meet the increasingly diverse consumption needs of travelers. The proposal by Mount Wudang to establish “Family Tourism Day” is a reflection of this shift.
In the past, people traveled mainly to enrich their leisure options and improve their quality of life, but now, travel is more about expressing emotional desires for “connection and experience.” Going out is no longer the issue—whom to go with and how to go are the starting points for choosing a travel method. This shift can also be observed in the way travel agencies design tour packages. Unlike common tour products of the past such as “Quality Tours” or “Round-Trip Flights,” savvy businesses are now promoting various “people-oriented” concepts like “Family Trips,” “Girlfriend Getaways,” and “Family Reunions,” all in response to the changing travel consumption patterns of tourists.
Mount Wudang’s initiative to propose “Family Tourism Day” is a commendable move, based on long-term attention to trends in the tourism market, grounded in the current mainstream of family travel, and respectful of people’s pursuit of emotional experiences during journeys, while also encouraging the development of personalized travel styles.