Businesses scramble to reach China’s growing experiences economy

This report is from this week’s CNBC’s The China Connection newsletter, which brings you insights and analysis on what’s driving the world’s second-largest economy. You can subscribe here.

Bookings for theme park hotels nearly doubled from a year ago, while demand for trips with traditional performances and artisanal crafts rose about 40%, according to preliminary figures from Fliggy, a travel platform owned by Alibaba.

“We’ve seen a lot of younger generation doing much more deep dive into the cultural experience, testing local activities in terms of arts in China,” said Kenneth Chow, a principal at consulting firm Oliver Wyman.

Those are all trends that businesses are trying to capture in an otherwise challenging economic environment.

So far, one thing’s clear from the numbers: people are moving around more in search of new experiences, thanks in part to affordable trains and hotels.

The official holiday runs from Feb. 15 to 23 this year, but China’s broader travel season stretches roughly 40 days, from early February to mid-March. China counts travel in terms of “trips” rather than people, and is predicting records this year: 110 million trips in and out of Beijing alone and a whopping 9.5 billion trips nationwide. That indicates that most of China’s 1.4 billion people will be traveling to more than one city.

H World Group, which operates more than 20 hotel chains in China, said demand is up for both “major transport hubs and leisure-focused cities such as Xishuangbanna,” a remote region on the border with Myanmar and Laos. In addition to lush nature, the region is known for its ancient Dai Buddhist temples, built hundreds of years ago.

Booking site Trip.com shows that more than 800 hotels opened in the region in the last two years, including a Hilton Garden Inn and one of IHG’s new premium “voco” branded spots.

Last year, Xishuangbanna already reported more than 4 million visits and tourism revenue of 5.04 billion ($730 million) yuan during the holiday.

Ahead of the holiday, video streaming company iQiyi opened its first theme park in Yangzhou, a city just over two hours away from Shanghai by high-speed train. The indoor venue features live theater and interactive virtual reality experiences based on popular shows streamed on iQiyi, sometimes called “China’s…