Wanderlust spurs tourism, museum visits

During holidays and weekends, it is difficult to get an admission ticket. Group tour options that include itineraries visiting museums are well received by travelers.

In addition, with more flights available to smaller cities and county-level towns becoming new growth points in the domestic tourism market, more tourists are shifting their attention to some niche and thematic museums.

Such museums include the Shanghai Auto Museum, Zigong Dinosaur Museum, Nanjing City Wall Museum, Qingdao Beer Museum and Nanjing Imperial Examination Museum of China.

"These museums meet tourist demand in a specific field or theme through exhibitions, unique cultural charm or regional characteristics, and they have attracted an increasing number of tourists," Cai said.

Meanwhile, foreign visitors are enthusiastic about checking out museums in China. So far this year, booking volumes of museum admission tickets from foreign tourists have increased 10-fold compared with all of last year, Trip.com said.

Among foreign cultural and museum enthusiasts, orders from the post-90s, post-80s and those travelers who were born after the year 2000 accounted for 34 percent, 25 percent and 21 percent of the total, respectively.

Tourists from Japan, South Korea, Australia, the United States and Thailand have been most interested in visiting museums in China, according to Trip.com, and the platform can support guests from 140 countries to book museum tickets in China in 35 languages.

Trip.com said it has strengthened cooperation with more domestic museums to provide convenience for foreign tourists.

In April, the company and Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum — which houses the Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an, Shaanxi province — officially launched a platform for integrated services for foreign visitors. The two sides provide online ticketing channels in 24 languages and 29 currencies for consumers in 39 countries and regions.

Since the launch of the service, more than 3,000 overseas consumers have booked trips related to viewing the Terracotta Warriors. Trip.com has also promoted the artifacts overseas such as in South Korea, Japan, Singapore and Thailand.

Next, the Terracotta Warriors scenic area plans to establish an overseas tourist data center with Trip.com to improve reservation services and provide overseas tourists with a better browsing experience.

In addition, some museums have launched night tours. At the Historical Museum of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, a branch of the Nanjing Museum Administration, visitors can watch performances at night, according to Qunar.

At the Nanjing Folk Museum, visitors can enjoy waterworks shows and folk music performances in the evening. In addition, some museums have launched diverse cultural and creative products, such as ice cream and cultural and creative notebooks and bags, Qunar said.