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Author  | CAAPA signed author

Editor-in-chief | Yang Ming

Editor | Liu Kaiye

On the opening day of Harbin Pharmaceutical Sixth Factory, more than 20,000 visitors flooded in; Yushu Robot's scalper tickets priced at 3,000 yuan each were hard to get; Xiaomi factory had 4,600 people competing for 20 visit slots with a 0.4% lottery rate; 23,000 people crowded the Mixue Bingcheng Zhengzhou factory during the Golden Week; 4 million people toured NIO factory online; parents born in the 80s and 90s held parent-child education classes at Shanghai Jiangnan Shipyard and South China Aircraft Manufacturing Factory; young people went to Luosifen and Yuanqi Forest production lines after work...

In recent years ， These scenes have been quietly unfolding across the country , searching on social platforms "Factory tours", there are over 10 ten thousand visitor notes, the comment sections are full of "Highly recommended warnings" ， Related topics are rapidly growing . When traditional scenic spots face declining visitor flow and shrinking revenue, a wave of " Factory tours ” craze is booming in the manufacturing sector. Those disappearing from scenic spots " visitors are entering factory workshops with curiosity and a desire to learn, seeking ” emotional comfort in a new "alternative" to traditional scenic spots' dilemma and visitors' "escape" 。

The dilemma of traditional scenic spots and visitors' "escape"

This summer vacation is about to end ，

Under the combined impact of extreme weather and other factors, scenic spots have suffered a huge blow to visitor flow, a certain 5A scenic spot staff Li Ming stood at the empty entrance square, staring blankly at the sparse visitors. This popular scenic spot that almost always required crowd control in previous years, almost this summer summer vacation reception has dropped year-on-year by nearly 3 0% 。 " Visitors seem to have suddenly disappeared. " Li Ming's confusion reflects the entire scenic spot industry's predicament.

Visitors' " escape " behind this is a profound transformation in tourism demand. A senior "factory tour" mom frankly said, "I have basically taken my child to all the production lines and factories around Guangzhou, including the Yakult factory tour, Coca-Cola factory tour, Dongfeng Nissan automobile factory tour. The trips are not expensive ， and also allow children to learn the most cutting-edge knowledge and technology, with excellent cost performance. ” In fact, factory tours are becoming an important option for parent-child travel and consumption.

Yuanqi Forest event

This transformation is not accidental. When traditional scenic spots fall into " ticket economy " path dependence, when homogenized commercial streets and performance projects cause aesthetic fatigue among visitors, when monotonous " cultural and creative products " flood various scenic spots, visitors start voting with their feet, seeking lower thresholds, more meaningful, more participatory experiences. The rise of factory tours may be precisely a precise response to this demand.

From production workshops to experience spaces, factory tours' inspiration to traditional scenic spots

The rapid development of factory tours (industrial tourism) objectively diverts visitors from traditional scenic spots, but more importantly, it injects strong vitality into the tourism industry and offers profound inspiration for upgrading and renewing traditional scenic spots.

The charm of factory tours lies in their unique "co-creation concept" and "sense of participation." Factory tours offer an "interactive, learning, and creative" experience that profoundly challenges the traditional scenic spots' inherent "sightseeing, passive, and consumer" model. A chocolate museum in Baoshan District, Shanghai, turns outdated equipment into popular exhibits; the rusty chocolate coin production line attracts 2,500 people daily for DIY experiences, with children crowding the workshop to stir chocolate paste while parents rush to buy co-branded gift boxes. Yuanqi Forest Factory's 25-yuan ticket not only includes a drink but also features a claw machine for drinks, display walls, and a sugar comparison chart. The Beibingyang Factory allows visitors to DIY soda mixing, bread, and cake making, enabling everyone to become a food creator.

Beibingyang Factory

The factory's unique experiential philosophy. Some factories offer a more hardcore visiting experience. At the Shanghai Tesla factory tour, you can see robotic arms dancing " Thousand-Hand Guanyin " welding the car body. In the Xiaomi automobile factory, AGV carts carry phone motherboards precisely through the dark; Shenzhen Longgang Energy Ecological Park, as an operating waste treatment plant, allows visitors to ride garbage trucks into the plant. Visitors can witness a mechanical claw over 5 meters high vigorously grabbing massive amounts of garbage and throwing it into the incinerator... These shocking experiences are unique for every visitor. Additionally, the unique "stress-relief" aesthetics inherent in industrial production processes have also become another attraction. Visitors say that watching the assembly line operation has a peculiar stress-relief effect. "Hema's buttery small bread coming out of the machine looks bouncy and chewy, making people want to steal a couple to keep in the office as stress toys." The packaging process at Qingdao Beer Factory No. 2 is like a visual therapy for "curing obsessive-compulsive disorder"—beer cans march out neatly in a row. This assembly line's efficiency and precision satisfy modern people's latent desire for order and efficiency, forming a unique aesthetic experience.

A certain automobile factory

Redefinition of "authenticity" and "locality." Factory tours attract visitors with "authentic production scenes" and "genuine local culture" (such as Guangxi Luosifen, Maotai's sauce aroma craftsmanship, Jingdezhen's porcelain capital culture) as core appeals. This forces traditional scenic spots to reflect: Is the culture and landscape they display authentic enough? Have they deeply explored and presented unique local values? Over-commercialized and performative "pseudo-folklore" appears pale in the face of genuine productivity.

Guangxi Liuzhou Luobawang Industrial Park

Image source: Xiaohongshu user @美美珺

Insights on income structure. Factory tours often deeply integrate tourism experiences with corporate brands and product sales, achieving a closed loop of "experience as marketing, marketing as sales," with huge potential for secondary consumption. This is a significant warning and inspiration for traditional scenic spots that heavily rely on ticket revenue and have low secondary consumption ratios. At the Qingdao Beer Museum, visitors can trace the century-old brewing history, watch the production line filling 20,000 bottles per minute in a modern bottling workshop, and finally fill a personalized beer bottle in the tasting area. This museum, transformed from an old factory site, received 1.8 million visitors in 2024 and generated 3.9895 million yuan in revenue during the 2025 Spring Festival alone; at Guangxi Liuzhou Luobawang Industrial Park, annual sales including tickets, dining, and product sales exceed 20 million yuan, contributing a 30%-40% visitor conversion rate.

Precision competition for target customer groups. Factory tours naturally attract specific interest groups (such as technology enthusiasts, food lovers, handicraft fans, and families with children), making their marketing more targeted. Traditional scenic spots that cannot precisely position and meet the needs of segmented customer groups will be at a disadvantage in refined competition.

Deeper changes in factory tours occur at the cognitive level. Factory tours break the "mystery veil" of manufacturing, allowing consumers to directly see the entire process from raw materials to finished products. In Kunshan, Jiangsu, a precision instrument manufacturer successfully changed the public's stereotype of "Made in China" through factory tours. Visitors left comments after the visit: "It turns out our country can produce such high-precision instruments, with every part as exquisite as a work of art."

Multiple value logics behind factory tours

The explosive growth of factory tours is driven by profound economic and social factors. For enterprises, factory tours open new revenue channels and, more importantly, build direct communication bridges with consumers. For visitors, factory tours provide unique opportunities for knowledge acquisition and skill learning. At the Shanghai Automobile Museum, visitors can not only learn about the history of automobile development but also experience the latest models in a simulated cockpit; at the Shenzhen Huawei base, visitors can book to tour 5G the laboratory and experience the charm of cutting-edge technology. This kind of " edutainment " model makes travel more than just leisure; it becomes a process of self-improvement.

Huawei 5G Laboratory

At the regional economic development level, factory tours are reshaping urban industrial structures. Shenyang, Liaoning, once famous for heavy industry, has developed " industrial memory " themed tourism by transforming old industrial bases, converting abandoned factory workshops into museums and creative parks, revitalizing surrounding service industries.

More profoundly, factory tours are cultivating a new era of craftsmanship spirit. When young people see engineers repeatedly debugging equipment and craftsmen meticulously carving products, a natural spiritual resonance arises from respect for professionalism and pursuit of quality. In Wuhu, Anhui, an automobile company holds a " Little Engineer " summer camp where children assemble car models by hand and learn about car structures, inspiring many to aspire to become engineers.

Redefinition of tourism value

Visitors lost from scenic spots have not truly disappeared; they have just moved to what they consider more meaningful travel destinations —— Whether it is a factory workshop full of modern productivity or a deeply reformed and revitalized scenic area , in the periodic value coordinates of tourists, the market is the most honest barometer.

The transformation of traditional scenic spots, requires finding new leverage in the redefinition of tourists' value; tourists will automatically shift to a higher-value energy field.

(Reference materials: DT Business Observation, Phoenix WEEKLY, Zhengjie Bureau, the article only expresses the author's views and does not represent the platform's position )

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