BEIJING, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese consumers are increasingly willing to travel across cities for a single concert, or add an extra night to a trip for a night tour, figures from this month's National Day holiday period suggest.

A concert by the pop duo Phoenix Legend in Shandong's provincial capital Jinan in east China drove up hotel bookings in surrounding commercial districts 12.8-fold year on year and lifted citywide bookings by 65 percent, according to online travel platform Qunar.

Searches for immersive performances, fireworks shows and night tours in the city rose more than 50 percent from a year earlier, the data shows.

Behind such holiday snapshots lies a larger structural change. China's experience economy reached 19.67 trillion yuan (about 2.93 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2025, up 29.58 percent year on year, and is projected to approach 59.66 trillion yuan by 2035, according to market research firm iiMedia Research.

At its core, the shift is from functional value to emotional value, with consumers paying not merely for what a product does, but for the feeling, connection and memory it produces, said Chen Lifen, a researcher at the Development Research Center of the State Council.

The change is already measurable in household budgets. Per capita spending on services reached 13,602 yuan in 2025, accounting for 46.1 percent of total consumer spending, official data showed. Service retail sales grew 5.5 percent last year, outpacing goods retail by 1.7 percentage points.

What distinguishes experience spending from ordinary consumption is its multiplier effect. Every one yuan spent on a ticket to a large-scale performance generates nearly seven yuan in related spending on transport, accommodation, dining, tourism and shopping, according to estimates by the China Association of Performing Arts. Large commercial performances with audiences above 5,000 generated more than 220 billion yuan in associated consumption in 2025, well beyond box office receipts. That multiplier is what carries experience spending beyond the box office into transport, accommodation, catering and retail.

"Unique Henan: Land of Dramas," a sprawling immersive theater complex in Zhengzhou, Henan's provincial capital in central China, illustrates how far the model can travel. The site houses 21 theaters across 56 spaces built around rammed-earth walls, wheat fields and traditional pit courtyard dwellings, with nearly 800 minutes of programming that audiences walk through rather than watch from a seat.

About 80 percent of its visitors come from outside the province, 85 percent are aged 18 to 35, and its repeat visitation rate is five times that of a conventional theme park. Liu Kaipeng, who heads the brand, describes the complex as a vast "emotional field" in which drama, architecture, music, retail and service all revolve around feeling.

Supply is changing alongside demand. At the Humble Administrator's Garden in Suzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province, digital lighting and projection illuminate the classical pavilions and ponds after dark, with Kunqu opera excerpts and traditional music staged along the night route.

Artificial intelligence, big data and the internet of things are increasingly embedded in the design of experience venues, and a highly developed digital infrastructure and mobile payment ecosystem allow a full loop, from online discovery to on-site experience, social sharing and immediate purchase.

"That capacity to link content distribution, scenario experience and social virality is difficult for many countries to replicate," said Wu Xiaobo, a professor with Zhejiang University.

The sector's reach extends well beyond tourism and performance. Research reports describe a multi-track landscape that includes scenic areas, quality accommodation, entertainment, specialty dining, cultural and creative merchandise, elderly care and wellness, and inbound tourism, with formats increasingly fusing with one another. It is also not a young person's preserve. New middle-class households, retirees and families with children form a broader base of demand.

The trend has moved onto the policy agenda. A State Council work plan issued in January called for supporting emotion and experience-oriented services, and the plan for expanding consumption during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030) rolled out in July named experience-oriented consumption as a priority for cultivating new business models and scenarios.

Local governments have shifted their focus from scaling up supply to improving quality, with Shanghai running its "Shanghai Summer" and "FIRST in Shanghai" campaigns, Beijing developing immersive venues such as the Shougang Park complex and POPLAND, also known as the Pop Mart City Park, while Chongqing is building scenarios around its mountainous urban terrain.

The growth is also reshaping how economists read Chinese consumption. Lin Jian, vice president of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce, said China's consumer market has entered a stage in which goods and services carry equal weight, and service consumption outpacing goods consumption is a normal outcome of rising incomes.

Analysts believe consumers may be more cautious about large durable goods, while demand for travel, entertainment, health care and education remains firm.

The sector is also generating new kinds of jobs. Among the new occupations and job categories published by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, several are tied directly to experience-based consumption, including drone swarm flight planners and travel-photography stylists.

For consumers, experience spending is ultimately a form of spending time. Several localities have begun exploring more flexible holiday arrangements to ease that constraint. "Many places are removing institutional obstacles to experience consumption through spring and autumn holiday schemes, better paid leave and a nighttime economy," said Zou Yunhan, a researcher with the State Information Center.

According to analysts, the longer-term value of the sector lies in scenario innovation, cultural depth and service upgrading, forming the capacity to keep meeting rising expectations for quality. By deepening that value, the sector, already measured in tens of trillions of yuan, can remain a durable source of momentum for the Chinese economy.