International flight bookings to Guilin, China surged 75% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2026, according to Trip.com Group data, placing the scenic southern city among the fastest-growing destinations in China for global travelers. The spike signals a meaningful demand shift for hospitality and food-and-beverage operators with a footprint — or expansion ambitions — in China's secondary and tertiary markets.
Trip.com Group amplified the momentum this week by hosting its "Guilin Night" event, drawing more than 3,500 international guests from 78 countries and regions. The company tapped its Global Ambassador for China Travel, actor Jackie Chan, to headline the event and broaden the city's international profile. Events of this scale — fusing celebrity reach with destination marketing — have become a proven playbook for driving advance booking windows and lifting average daily rates at host-city hotels and restaurants.
For operators, the Guilin story reflects a broader reorientation in post-pandemic travel behavior. Visitors are increasingly gravitating toward slower, experience-led itineraries centered on nature immersion, heritage cuisine, and cultural authenticity rather than high-volume city hopping. That preference creates durable revenue opportunities for independent restaurateurs, boutique lodging concepts, and regional food-and-beverage brands that can credibly deliver local character. Our hospitality industry trend coverage has tracked this shift across multiple Asian markets over the past 18 months.
Guilin's karst landscape and Li River corridor have long attracted domestic Chinese tourists, but the 75% international booking growth suggests the destination is breaking into a new global tier. Operators eyeing the market should note that international travelers typically carry higher per-trip spend and longer average length of stay than domestic visitors — two metrics that translate directly into food-and-beverage revenue per cover and ancillary hotel dining performance. Food & Beverage Magazine has documented similar dynamics in emerging culinary destinations across Southeast Asia.
The Trip.com Group event also illustrates how destination marketing organizations and online travel platforms are increasingly co-investing with hospitality stakeholders to build awareness pipelines. For restaurant and hotel groups evaluating China market entry or expansion, partnerships with booking platforms that control traveler discovery — particularly at the destination-selection stage — are becoming a competitive differentiator worth building into market entry strategies.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
