Last Updated on March 18, 2025
Gone are the days when live commerce was only for buying products and services. In China’s tourism industry, consumers include live-streaming platforms as a significant part of their travel planning process (pre-trip, during-trip, and post-trip).
Because of this, even travel booking apps are integrating real-time video sharing into their user feeds to serve the needs of modern Chinese travelers. Tourism live-streaming is now part of online travel planning patterns in China, and foreign businesses must learn to leverage these features to appeal to their target audiences.
In this post, we’ll explore the prevalence of travel live-streaming in China and share strategies that worked well in the local market.
What is the Travel Live-streaming Trend in China?
The travel live-streaming trend in China refers to the growing preference of Chinese people to watch travel-related real-time content when planning their trips locally and abroad. This shift is not a surprise, especially considering that 75% of the country’s population actively engages with live streams.
More importantly, around 45% of Chinese tourists cite live-streaming content as a significant factor in their travel decisions.
Photos and videos can be edited, but live streams present tourism products in their current form. This is why consumers view them as a more direct representation of the destinations they want to explore.
Rather than relying on group packages and online travel agents to arrange every aspect of their trips, these tech-savvy, young Chinese tourists actively search for live streams to see actual travel experiences.
Livestream promotions of Tangqi Village of Heshui County (Source: Xinhua)
Even within the domestic tourism industry, locals utilize live-streaming content to provide consumers with a more comprehensive look at tourist attractions and destinations. In January 2025, vloggers residing on Loess Plateau used this strategy to promote the region’s local specialties.
Unlike professionally produced content like pre-recorded documentaries featuring rural areas, live streaming allowed locals to share more real-time information about their products. This tourism marketing strategy helped many businesses on the Loess Plateau attract more Chinese travelers during the 2025 Spring Festival.
Consumer Profile of Travel Live-streaming Sessions in China
Beyond the Chinese tourism industry, the general audience of live-streaming platforms is often Millennials aged between 27 and 39. While only the third highest user base in this segment, younger generations (under 27 years old) bring significant traffic to these types of content.
Most consumers watching live-streaming e-commerce engage with the content through smartphones. In fact, a survey conducted by Statista revealed that 75% of real-time video viewers in China are using mobile devices.
The general live-streaming market currently has over 833 million users. Its continued influence in the online shopping scene and broader audience reach has led the industry to have a gross merchandise value of more than 4.9 trillion yuan in 2023.
When it comes to tourism products, Chinese live-stream viewers mainly engage in content related to specific destinations, such as popular tourist cities or rural areas.
They seek recommendations that showcase local culture, food, and traditions. International travel destinations, especially those that align with luxury, adventure, or unique cultural experiences, have a significant following from younger audiences.
5 Effective Strategies for Travel Live-streaming in China
1. Choose the right Live-streaming Platforms
While almost every popular social media platform in China now has a live-streaming feature, travel brands must establish official accounts on apps their target audience uses.
It’s also worth noting that each platform differs in audience reach and consumer engagement patterns. Here’s what you need to know about these applications:
- Douyin (抖音)
Douyin is the most popular short video platform in the Chinese market. As an app rich in user-generated content and social sharing features, it’s not surprising that 90.1% of its users watch, upload, and engage with real-time videos.
Tourism businesses should also note that this app’s algorithm is very trend and data-driven. This is primarily because 73% of the platform’s user base are young audiences under 36 years old, actively seeking content that is unique to their needs.
Travel Videos on Douyin
Douyin supports in-app shopping features, enabling many brands to offer exclusive deals, discounts, or limited-time offers during livestreams. This integration allows viewers to make bookings or purchases without leaving the platform, streamlining the conversion process.
In 2023, New Oriental, China’s top education brand, doubled its live-streaming efforts on Douyin. They launched multiple channels for real-time videos, one of them specifically for global culture and tourism content.
Their live-stream series for travel-related topics gained an overall engagement of over 28,000, with each video generating thousands of views and hundreds of comments.
- Bilibili
Unlike other platforms, Bilibili fosters niche-specific communities. In fact, it was initially built around anime, gaming, and youth pop culture.
This distinct characteristic makes it easier to build an audience with similar interests and consolidate consumer decisions on this platform.
Furthermore, Bilibili is primarily known for its long-form video formats. Because of this, the platform’s average audiences are more adept at watching varied and dynamic media content.
All-year-round Livestream of Gongga Snow Mountain on Bilibili
Bilibili’s algorithm favors evergreen content, meaning that high-quality live streams can continue to gain views long after the session ends. This is perfect for destination marketing, where interest peaks around certain travel seasons.
- WeChat Channels
Beyond being the exclusive video-sharing feed of China’s biggest super app, WeChat Channels is integrated with dynamic social commerce dimensions.
When launching live streams, not only will the videos appear on public feeds and within account profiles, but marketers can also link them on WeChat Mini-Programs and e-commerce stores.
With this multi-channel integration, your live-streaming content can expand its reach beyond your account’s existing audiences. This also makes it easier for marketers to track general consumer behavior and the target audience’s purchase intentions.
In addition, Chinese tourists also get immediate access to instant bookings during the live-streaming session without being redirected elsewhere. This shortens consumer journeys and increases the chances of conversions for tourism businesses.
Since it’s within WeChat’s ecosystem, live streams on Channels can also leverage the platform’s private domain traffic sources. This includes group chats, subscription messages, and WeCom integration.
These private channels are a gold mine for online travel live-streaming, primarily since these loyal followers are already engaged and more likely to engage with any content you release.
While more popularly known as a micro-blogging platform, Weibo’s trend-driven and niche-specific algorithm makes it the perfect place for every type of live broadcast.
If your live stream gains consistent traction through shares and comments, it can snowball into massive exposure. Unlike other social media platforms, where the content disappears quickly within the feed, Weibo has a reliable hashtag system that allows users to discover older live-streaming sessions.
Tourism New Zealand’s Live-streams on Weibo (Source: Jing Daily Culture)
Tourism New Zealand (TNZ) took the live-streaming strategy seriously a few years ago when they released several posts featuring the country’s natural diversity (and penguins!). That specific video has garnered over 1.6 million real-time views on Weibo.
Travel influencers played a crucial role in TNZ’s live-streaming sessions on Weibo. Beyond reaching more Chinese tourists, co-creation campaigns with KOLs and KOCs added credibility and built more trust in the brand.
- Little Red Book
The travel and hospitality industry in Little Red Book (Xiaohongshu) has been gaining continued momentum in the past few years.
In 2023, tourism-related posts on the platform increased by over 273%. The “Overseas Travel” tag also generated traction, with a 107% increased search volume.
The Chinese tourists flocking to Xiaohongshu lean more toward young, urban, affluent women. These users trust peer-generated content over traditional ads, so authentic, experience-driven live streams perform well.
2. Build a presence on Online Travel Agencies (OTA)
With Chinese consumers actively planning their trips online, many online travel agencies are diversifying how they serve their existing user base.
These platforms have evolved beyond booking services into full-fledged content ecosystems, making them ideal for live travel streaming. Unlike social media platforms, OTA audiences typically have a clear intent to travel, making them more likely to engage with travel-related content and offers.
- Ctrip (携程旅行)
A good example of an OTA platform marketers can consider is Ctrip, China’s largest travel booking app. Currently, it serves over 69 million monthly active users who are actively searching for flights, hotels, and tour packages.
Trip.com Group’s Super World Trip series is a prime example of effective live-streaming. In early 2023, the initiative launched, focusing on short-haul destinations, achieving 40 million RMB ($5.5 million) in GMV in its first event in Thailand.
This initiative successfully sold over 20,000 hotel room nights, proving that live-streaming is not just about content but a direct revenue driver.
Ctrip’s Asia Live Streaming Centre in Bangkok (Source: Trip.com Official Website)
- Qunar (去哪儿)
Qunar is among the most popular Chinese online travel agencies providing affordable flights, hotels, and group tours. However, in recent years, it has expanded into content-driven marketing, integrating live-streaming features to enhance user engagement.
Its user base is accustomed to hunting for bargains that they cannot expect from regular travel agents. That’s why live streams with special discounts or limited-time deals are highly effective and prompt immediate bookings on Qunar.
- Fliggy (飞猪)
Alibaba’s Fliggy is a pioneer in online travel live-streaming. This strategy has been proven to be highly effective, as seen in the success of “Let’s Cloud Travel (一起来云游),” which popularized virtual tourism in China during the pandemic.
Fliggy’s Website Homepage
Since Fliggy is part of the Alibaba ecosystem, it offers extensive e-commerce features. This allows live-stream viewers to browse destination highlights, get special discounts or coupon codes, and even finalize their bookings without leaving the platform.
Under the Alibaba umbrella, marketers can also cross-promote their Fliggy live streams on other related channels (e.g., Taobao).
It’s not uncommon for travelers to discover your Fliggy stream via another app they’re already using. More exposure usually translates to higher viewer numbers and greater conversion potential.
3. Collaborate with Local Travel Influencers
In China, influencers are the center of the live-streaming market, primarily because of their niche-specific audiences and content creation skills. Their deep familiarity with local customs, dialects, and culture helps them create content that resonates with viewers.
Some tourism boards, such as the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), collaborate with Chinese KOLs on platforms like Kuaishou to host live travel events in top destinations like Phuket, Krabi, and Phang-nga.
Source: The Thaiger
The project brought together about 20 Chinese travel KOLs and dozens of production crew members to live-stream their beach experiences. From sampling local food to exploring vibrant island cultures, they gave their audiences an on-the-ground view of what to expect.
This live content generated significant online engagement on Kuaishou, demonstrating how impactful well-curated live streams can be.
4. Leverage Direct E-commerce Integration
Did you know that e-commerce is the most popular live-streaming format among Chinese internet users? This segment has over 597 million users, accounting for over 54% of China’s overall digital population.
Live-streaming e-commerce is a trend that blends real-time video engagements with online shopping. When showcasing a scenic destination, a hotel property, or a unique local experience during a real-time video, integrating “one-click” purchase options can convert viewer interest into immediate bookings.
Many brands and creators capitalize on “flash deals” or time-limited offers to encourage quick decision-making. Follow-up opportunities, like a dedicated online travel reservation mini-program, ensure viewers can keep engaging even after the live stream ends. Over time, they become part of a loyal community.
5. Align your campaign with Chinese Festivals and Holidays
Digital consumerism in China is often at its peak during important holidays, like Chinese New Year and National Golden Week. These occasions are when millions of people plan vacations, book tickets, and explore destinations online.
Other commercial events, like Singles’ Day (11.11 Festival), also present opportunities to engage with audiences interested in unique travel experiences.
Your Trusted Travel Marketing Partner in Mainland China!
Launching a successful live stream in China requires a data-driven approach. From choosing the right platform to identifying what kind of content to launch, it’s clear that these strategies require an in-depth knowledge of the Chinese digital ecosystem.
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With Sekkei Digital Group, we ensure that your digital marketing strategies align with the changing market trends and are ahead of the competition. Through our extensive industry experience, our team can help your brand maximize the opportunities that live-streaming can bring to your brand.
Whether you intend to launch a campaign with Chinese travel KOLs or create a live-stream strategy on social media, we have all the digital solutions you need! Contact us today, and let’s discuss your next move on China’s dynamic consumer market.
