From May 12-13, the China Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (CAAPA) hosted the 2025 China Parent-Child Tourism Innovation and Development Forum in Shanghai. Lu Mengxi, member of the Meituan Party Committee and general manager of the tourism industry represented the China Tourism Association and the Meituan joint research group in releasing and interpreting the "2025 Parent-Child Vacation Development Report," The following is the full interpretation.

Overview of Parent-Child Vacations

Parent-child tourism is undergoing a profound transformation from form to core! In this report, we will show you the seven core scenarios and five operating samples of the parent-child vacation market through in-depth observation of the development trends, tourist characteristics, and product and marketing innovations of tourism enterprises. Let us jointly explore the direction of change in the parent-child vacation industry and growth opportunities 。

When we talk about parent-child vacations, using two sets of data to look at the market's tremendous power:

First, 2025 year “ May Day ” holiday, the number of domestic tourism trips and the amount of consumption in the domestic tourism market both showed a significant growth trend, with total tourism consumption reaching 1802.69 hundreds of millions of yuan, an increase of increase 8%.

Second is Meituan data shows that the scale of the parent-child market during the "May Day" holiday has shown rapid growth for two consecutive years, with the search popularity of "parent-child vacations" in cities such as Guangzhou, Chengdu, and Beijing increasing by more than 300 %，year-on-year growth in the search volume for parent-child parks 124%。

Based on the number of trips and average consumption data for the May Day holiday released by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and the scale and consumption frequency of Meituan's parent-child users, we boldly predict: The online parent-child vacation market will reach 300 billion yuan in 2025.

In terms of market segmentation, the parent-child vacation market has rich and diverse, multi-faceted and three-dimensional sub-sectors, mainly including parent-child hotels, parent-child attractions /parks, parent-child tour routes, parent-child restaurants, parent-child entertainment, parent-child retail, and other types, and each sub-sector shows various common development characteristics.

First, Scenario design centered on the family. Each sub-sector of the parent-child vacation market revolves around the core needs of family users. Its design logic lies in meeting and realizing the differentiated needs of family members through spatial combination and functional integration.

Second, Double strengthening of entertainment and education . The essence of the parent-child vacation scenario is an accurate response to the needs of family users ， both need to attract children's participation through fun, and also need to meet parents' implicit needs for children's cognitive development and skills training.

Third, High-frequency cross-border and IP-linked operation. The core value of IP linkage lies in finding two major IP commonalities, sharing fan base and cultural identity, quickly establishing brand awareness and stimulating consumer impulse 。 

Fourth, Tiered pricing and package sales . The core of the tiered pricing strategy lies in accurately matching the differences in family spending power, and package sales are responsible for connecting consumption scenarios ， to promote the transition of parent-child vacations from single-product competition to service ecosystem construction.

User Insight into the Parent-Child Vacation Market

We have conducted an insight into the users of the parent-child vacation market. We found that their consumption mainly shows the following five characteristics.

First, following the top stream to create family highlights, parents who pay for “sentiment” take their children to find their childhood memories, forming intergenerational emotional connections. In the era of social media, top-stream IP has become "showable" parent-child social capital, and parents pay more attention to the "photographic rate" of the trip ，leveraging social media.

Second, the new generation of parents embrace “wild” growth, they are no longer satisfied with safe amusement facilities, but prefer outdoor challenges and nature exploration.

Third, from material needs to emotional needs, the modern family consumption concept is transforming from traditional material investment to value investment in parent-child experiences and parent-child vacations.

Fourth, digital upbringing becomes a new benchmark for consumption. The parent-child vacation group shows typical Internet digital native characteristics, and their consumption decisions are highly dependent on online evaluation systems.

Fifth, cultural immersion from entertainment to education. Parent-child vacations are upgrading from pure leisure and entertainment to cultural immersion-style learning through play, with intangible cultural heritage experiences, folk activities, traditional skills, and science popularization activities becoming popular choices for parent-child tours.

Let's look at a few more keywords and see some changes in the needs of parent-child tourists.

First Year-on-year increase in the number of "Relaxation Travel" notes 31 % In the context of family vacations, "physical exhaustion" and "emotional stress" have become the main contradictions. "Effortless Mom" and "Lying-flat parenting" have become popular search terms. Product design needs to incorporate "basic itinerary + flexible options". + flexible options configuration.

The second keyword is 3-10 years old, The age group of children most active in family vacations is concentrated in this age range. ， This suggests that excellent market products must achieve vertical and age-based design.

Third keyword is Scattered channel information. With the rapid development of the family vacation market, the channels and content through which parents obtain information have shown exponential growth, but information overload and inefficient filtering have exacerbated decision-making costs. This requires us to build intelligent travel service products.

The booking behavior of family users also shows obvious relaxed characteristics. These users usually start booking intensively one week before major holidays, and during the holidays, they are more inclined to book and travel on the spot, with a significant increase in immediate consumption.

From the perspective of the source of tourists, Jiangsu Province and Beijing are respectively the province and city that most love to take children on trips, and parents pay more attention to their children's experience and growth. From the perspective of destinations, cities with profound cultural heritage and modern infrastructure are favored by families with children.

Seven Core Scenarios for Family Vacations

Next, let's look at the seven core scenarios for family vacations. Family vacations have formed a complete consumer ecological chain, and every link is undergoing profound changes.

Accommodation scenario presents "short-distance and rational consumption " coexist characteristics 。 85.7% of families choose budget hotels, but " family hotels with children's playgrounds " search volume has skyrocketed 409 %. This seemingly contradictory behavior is actually the parents' ultimate pursuit of "spending money wisely."

Scenic spot experience is moving towards diversified symbiosis. Theme parks continue to lead with stable growth and remain the first choice for most families. At the same time, skiing, nature sightseeing, and pure resort-style scenic spots are also increasingly favored, becoming the second-tier choices for families with children, reflecting that parents, when traveling with children, pursue both entertainment and also begin to pay attention to the diversified needs of outdoor challenges, natural experiences, and leisure and relaxation.

In terms of vacation route selection, more and more families with children tend to choose group forms such as small groups and private groups with 10 people or less, flexible and affordable, Families with children pay more attention to the safety and privacy of their trips.

In 2025, the booking volume of small group tours has increased from 7.9% to 13.5%. The year-on-year growth rate of private groups far exceeds 100%, and the growth rate of chartered tours exceeds 200%.

Transportation In terms of transportation, the preferred mode of transportation for families with children is mainly high-speed rail, supplemented by air travel. Families with children who travel by air tend to choose first-tier cities and characteristic tourist cities with complete children's facilities and entertainment resources.

During the Dragon Boat Festival holiday in 2025, the year-on-year growth of children's meals and "two adults and one child" package orders increased by 64%, and parents' requirements for children's meals are constantly increasing: Parents pay more attention to food safety and nutritional balance when ordering. Modern families are no longer satisfied with passively accepting services, but hope to participate in the creation process, transforming the dining scene into an important opportunity to enhance emotions and create memories.

2025 year New activities such as "family photos", "family DIY crafts", and "family picking" have also increased by 45 % 。The survey shows that nearly 70% of users hope to find richer, more interesting, and more cost-effective family activities online.

Family vacations should be a relaxing and enjoyable time, but in traditional travel methods, parents need to carry a lot of items for their children, which greatly affects the vacation experience. Flash sales provide consumers with a zero-anxiety, burden-free shopping model, avoiding the impact on the travel experience caused by parents not having prepared enough supplies in advance. During the May Day holiday in 2025, the year-on-year growth of children's slippers orders increased by 121%, and the year-on-year growth of baby wipes/tissues night orders increased by 130%, and the trend of light travel, empty bag travel, and on-site purchase of daily necessities is becoming increasingly obvious.

Five Operational Case Studies in the Family Vacation Field

So, against the backdrop of the rapid development of China's family vacation market, what new development paths have emerged for enterprises? I will provide a detailed introduction to help you better understand the opportunities these changes bring to tourism enterprises.

In today's fiercely competitive tourism market, major parks are actively exploring innovative development paths, and introducing top IP and building a vacation model that matches it has become an important model for attracting family tourists and enhancing competitiveness.

2024 May Day, Meituan introduced the classic Ultraman IP landed in Wuhan Happy Valley, and then gradually landed in Chongqing Happy Valley, Xiangyang OCT, etc. This group's internal linkage model, through sharing IP resources, successful experiences, and marketing channels, has maximized the dissemination of IP influence. Each park innovates activities based on the classic Ultraman IP, with daily classic Ultraman light parades—classic Ultraman meet-and-greets, creating exclusive themed areas to showcase classic Ultraman busts, classic scenes, etc., allowing tourists to immerse themselves in the classic Ultraman world for a rich experience. It also provides a reference example for other park groups, namely integrating group advantages resources, building a unified and diversified vacation experience system around top IP, and attracting tourists from different regions to enhance overall brand competitiveness.

Excellent service often lies in exceeding expectations “Micro-moment” design. Businesses need to establish a “microscope for parental needs” insight system, transforming abstract needs into actionable service scenarios.

In Hangzhou's tourism Under the impetus of the "Relaxing Hangzhou Trip" policy, by integrating high-end accommodation scenarios from the Huanglong Hotel Management Group and seven major consumer brands such as Pampers, creating an innovative experience of "check-in and enjoy brand blind boxes + 1000 sets of surprise themed rooms", especially for families with children, launching brand gift blind boxes containing solutions such as "diapers and wipes combination packs" ，并在客房内设置 Scan-to-buy zone . If parents encounter a shortage of necessities, after scanning the code to place an order, it can be delivered in the fastest 30 minutes, seamlessly solving urgent needs during the journey 。

Wuzhizhou Island Tourist Area stands out with a series of innovative and thoughtful children's services. Its successful practices in multi-period children's care and comprehensive child-friendly service construction have set a commendable example for the parent-child vacation industry.

Kunming Maine Coon cat themed homestay with “ life education + immersive pet interaction ” as its core, vividly interprets the in-depth exploration of parent-child friendly services by modern businesses.

Anhui Xiaocanyuan Catering launched free baby nutrition meals for children under 5 years old in some areas. Its waiters will also proactively inquire and adjust the taste of dishes according to the children's needs, providing a reference for the entire parent-child catering industry on how to deepen service connotation and create differentiated competitive advantages.

We also need to grasp the parent-child customer group's “entertainment is learning” consumer psychology, transforming cultural inheritance into experiential, participatory, and takeaway educational products.

In the research and study parent-child vacation market, product innovation has become the core driving force for attracting families with children and enhancing the vacation experience. Taking the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences as an example, Yunnan Influence Travel Agency Co., Ltd. has developed customized science popularization courses tailored to the cognitive characteristics of children of different age groups. In the "Night Exploration of the Botanical Garden" activity, after nightfall, children can walk into the primitive tropical rainforest area with flashlights, observing nocturnal animals and plants, such as night-blooming Epiphyllum, squirrels foraging, and nocturnal animals, experiencing the different charms of nature's day and night, and cultivating children's comprehensive understanding of the natural ecosystem 。

In fact, family outings not only pursue joyful experiences but also hope to gain knowledge, inspire thinking, and inherit culture through subtle influence. Shanghai Haichang Ocean Park, based on the collision of traditional culture and Haipai culture, launched activities such as the Dragon Boat Festival intangible cultural heritage market, land dragon boat races, Peking Opera flash mobs, and folk lanterns. The online exposure of the activities exceeded 2000 ten thousand, and the offline participation exceeded 5 ten thousand person-times. It is not only a successful festival marketing event, but also sows the seeds of cultural identity in the hearts of the younger generation.

Xiuwenzhai • Huayin Xiaoyuan integrates traditional intangible cultural heritage and modern design concepts, allowing guests to enjoy comfortable accommodation while experiencing the charm of intangible cultural heritage seal carving and calligraphy culture.

Parent-child vacation groups are family-based, covering the "parents + children" consumption chain, and children's needs often drive family consumption decisions. Leading brands use "product and sales integration" to reach parent-child customer groups, which can simultaneously influence family consumption in clothing, food, housing, transportation, education, and entertainment.

Shanghai Disney Resort, through close online and offline collaboration and precise strategy execution, uses “Meituan 527 Fun Play Festival” as an opportunity to attract families with children. During the event, more than a thousand people checked in and interacted at the offline interactive booth at Longfor Chongqing Times Tianjie, with nearly 50% of users visiting the activity page to receive exclusive discounts on Disney parent-child tickets and multi-person tickets. This fully demonstrates Disney's strong appeal to parent-child customer groups, successfully transforming brand influence into consumers' actual attention and interest in ticket products, laying a solid foundation for sales conversion. Creating the topic of "99 reasons to visit Shanghai Disney," quickly detonated the entire network. The topic's views reached nearly 40 million, far exceeding the average viewership of 2 million for theme parks.

Zhuhai Chimelong collaborated with Dianping, customizing an out-of-town version of the homepage to comprehensively showcase Chimelong's charm to potential tourists. During the event, Chimelong's summer family ticket sales exceeded tens of millions, and the proportion of parent-child consumption increased to 41%.

The Must-Stay List, through a series of measures such as releasing lists and conducting trial sleeper activities, accurately presents the brand characteristics of parent-child hotels to the target customer group. While enhancing brand awareness and reputation, it successfully guides families with children to make booking decisions, pushing the entire parent-child hotel market to a new level in brand building and commercial conversion. During the recruitment activity, the activity page exposure exceeded 500,000, attracting approximately 12,000 users from both inside and outside the site to sign up for trial sleep, and the cumulative views of the registration note topic exceeded 80 million.

The successful operation of the parent-child market, is also increasingly dependent on the innovative integration of cross-field resources.

After the renovation of the Polar Ocean World in Shijiazhuang Zoo, the customer flow increased slowly, the operator observed that the core customer group of the zoo and oceanarium with nearly 2 million annual visitors are families with children, actively breaking the boundaries of the venue, ingeniously introduced the customized theme parade and performance project "Alice's Exploration of the Ocean Kingdom" during the summer season, carefully designing the parade route to extend from the zoo's peak entry area to the entrance of the oceanarium Leveraging the zoo's large visitor base, the development of the oceanarium's customer flow effectively solved the problem of attracting visitors to the oceanarium.

The Xiaodiao Litang catering brand and the phenomenal giant panda at Beijing Zoo IP "Menglan" cross-border cooperation, launched "Following Menglan, embark on this Beijing culinary journey" themed activity, vividly illustrating how commercial entities currently integrate cross-border thinking into their marketing in the parent-child market. This collaboration not only significantly increased the brand's exposure and appeal in the parent-child market, but also elevated an ordinary dining experience into a parent-child experience filled with joy, companionship, and exploration.

In the parent-child vacation market we, Together, we have created not only a playground for children, but also an energy station for family emotions. ； We design not only products, but also places for intergenerational dialogue; we build not only a commercial ecosystem, but also also "a beautiful life picture of 'companionship in childhood and warmth in growth'".

Thank you for listening, I hope today's content has been inspiring. Thank you!