What the Loom Taught a Swiss Hotel Exec: China Travel's Quiet Shift to Hands-On Experiences

Andy has spent 15 years in hotels. He knows what a good guest experience looks like on paper: check-in times, room standards, service flows.

None of that prepared him for a loom.

The loom that changed how he sees his Chinese guests

In late May, Andy — a Swiss hotel executive — was one of nearly 2,000 travel industry professionals from 67 countries invited to Guilin for the "Oriental Heritage Playground", a day of hands-on heritage put together by Trip.com Group. He sat down at a Zhuang brocade loom and threaded colored yarn through the frame.

"It's amazing — nothing like this exists in my country," he told reporters from People's Daily's China City News. "After holding these threads that have been passed down for a thousand years, I can understand my Chinese guests much better."

That last sentence is the part that stays with you. Fifteen years of hotel data, and a thread changed his understanding faster.

The mother who got misty-eyed at the end of a weaving class

On the other side of China, in Zhangjiajie, tour operator Li Jieming has watched the same shift happen with his own clients. Three years ago, overseas visitors were a tiny share of his business. Today they are around 60 percent.

His team used to offer the standard sightseeing itinerary. The results were mixed. So they started building in hands-on stops: Tujia brocade weaving, the Baishou dance, traditional silverwork.

A family from Germany spent one afternoon learning Tujia weaving. None of them had ever touched a loom. Their finished cloth was uneven, the patterns imperfect. And when the workshop ended, the mother got a bit misty-eyed — not because the cloth was good, but because it was something they made together, rather than simply a purchase.

"The mountains gave them a view," Li said. "The weaving gave them a memory."

The student who almost lost a dumpling

In Yangshuo, the same instinct shows up in the kitchen. Casper Supeene, a 20-year-old college student from Belgium, signed up for a half-day cooking class that starts with picking ingredients at the market and ends with four dishes: Yangshuo beer fish, smashed cucumber, kung pao chicken and dumplings.

The hardest part, he said, was the dumplings. "The filling sometimes came out, and it was hard to form the pleats neatly. But they are very delicious."

A bank worker from the Netherlands, Niels Jongsma, admitted he had never cooked fish before and struggled with the heat — "I didn't know when it was fully done, but I finally made it." He planned to cook the dishes for family and friends back home.

The class costs about 280 yuan (roughly $41) per person. In June, the school ran around 400 students a month, most of them from Europe and the US.

Why this is happening now

This is not a coincidence of a few good tours. China's visa-free entry has widened to nearly 80 countries; in the first quarter of 2026 alone, foreign visitors made 8.32 million visa-free entries, up 29.3 percent year on year. A Trip.com survey of more than 500 inbound tourism operators found over 80 percent reporting that overseas visitors are increasingly interested in experiences beyond traditional sightseeing.

What travelers ask has changed too. Yang Li, one of China's first nationally certified gold tour guides, put it simply: "Before, visitors listened to whatever you told them. Now they ask why." At the Great Wall, tourists want to know why it appears in China's national anthem. In Shenzhen, Spanish clients ask to see smart factories. In Changsha, Romanian groups request tours of electric vehicle production lines.

What this means if you're planning a trip

If you only see the famous sights, you will still have a great trip. But the part people remember — the part they tell friends about — increasingly happens with their hands: a loom, a wok, a tea field, a calligraphy brush.

You do not need to be crafty. Nobody expects your brocade to be neat. The German family's cloth was imperfect and the mother still cried a little. The point was never the product.

China Travel's quiet shift is simple: sightseeing is what you see, experiences are what you keep. Check chinapie.ai for Guilin, Yangshuo and Zhangjiajie experience pages to find a workshop near your route.