During the summer of 2025, the once booming market of study tours across the country suddenly turned cold. According to a recent survey by the WeChat public account “Travel World,” this year has been described by many operators as the “worst year for study tours.” Against the backdrop of a continuing economic downturn, the economic pressure, chaos, and safety considerations of study tours have led to this cooling trend.
WeChat public account “Travel World” recently conducted a survey on the business situation of study tours this year in six industry communities, and the responses were full of complaints. Comments such as “this year is too tough,” “worst year in Beijing,” “can’t even compete for parents’ budgets anymore,” and “VIP clients have cut their budgets” were common.
The first to respond to the survey was Xiaogang, the head of a travel agency in Beijing, who said, “This summer, there is no need to fight for tickets to the China Science and Technology Museum, unlike last year when it was a battle to get in.”
“Travel World” stated that the study tour market in Beijing during the summer was bleak, and the same went for the southern regions.
Xie, who has been deeply involved in the southern tourism market for many years, mentioned that a friend’s camp study business had recently laid off staff this year. Even the military training summer camps in Guangzhou were not as successful, as “in previous years, these groups would be fully booked by June, but this year, there are many vacancies.”
Le, the manager of a five-star hotel in Xiamen, sighed directly in the group chat, saying, “There are absolutely no study tour groups this year.”
While 2025 is widely regarded as the coldest year for study tours, there are those who are rising against the tide. In a report by “Travel World,” Zhu, the manager of the Shuwa Tribe in Xinyu, Jiangxi, offered a different perspective. He mentioned, “Our parent-child camp has seen a fivefold increase in bookings this year. The focus is not on teaching but on ‘natural education + luxury wilderness accommodations,’ using natural education as value-added service, emphasizing the holiday experience.”
It seems that what is cooling off is not the form of study tours but whether they live up to their name and essence. Parents are no longer impulsively spending on study tours but are examining the true value behind the study content.
As early as 2013, study tours gained policy support, with the China National Tourism and Leisure Outline (2013-2020) explicitly stating the gradual implementation of study tours for primary and secondary school students. In 2016, the Chinese Ministry of Education and 11 other departments issued the Opinions on Promoting Study Tours for Primary and Secondary School Students, explicitly requiring the inclusion of study tours in school teaching plans.
Encouraged by the education sector, schools within the system and training institutions outside the system have all jumped in. Travel agencies that used to focus on tour groups have also launched “study tour groups” to compete for the market of primary and secondary school students, quickly spreading the trend nationwide. According to relevant data, there are over 5,000 related enterprises for “study camps” and “summer camps” nationwide, with the overall scale of the Chinese study tour market expected to exceed a hundred billion yuan in the future.
However, criticism has risen about study tours being misnamed and overpriced.
Chinese media reported that in 2024, a parent admitted, “My child participated in a two-week summer study camp in the UK last year, which cost over 40,000 yuan. This year, for the same institution and the same course, the price has risen to over 50,000 yuan.”
Some study tours falsely advertise visits to top Chinese universities like Peking University and Tsinghua University but end up being mere photo opportunities at the school entrance, with the whole trip filled with luxury dining and accommodations but lacking educational content.
“Travel World” noted that in recent years, parents were easily duped into paying large sums of money, simply by wearing school uniforms, carrying banners, and saying a few lines about “visiting Tsinghua and Peking.” However, such superficial practices are no longer effective. A study tour operator, who organizes trips both domestically and abroad, said, “This year, many parents choose not to send their children abroad, and schools are not organizing trips anymore.” The reason is simple: the costs are too high, and no one wants to foot the bill.
Wang, who provides VIP parent-child study tours for financial institutions, bluntly stated in the group chat, “Financial institutions are laying off employees and cutting salaries. We have been in the study tour business for five years, and this year is the toughest. Our business has decreased by 40%.”
Study tours still have demand, but parents’ consumption habits are becoming more practical and rational. Amid China’s economic downturn, parents are turning their focus to local or nearby provinces for study opportunities. Zhang, a teacher offering AI study tours in Hebei, mentioned, “This year, many of our trips, which used to go out of the province, have now been limited to Hebei itself. We explore within the province, swapping resources, and at most travel to the Northeast and Inner Mongolia.”
Jerry, specializing in sports study tours, stated, “This year, parents are less inclined to hand over all their children’s time to study tours but are more interested in traveling with their children during the summer.”
Safety is paramount in study tours aimed at students, yet this continues to be a major point of contention.
Chinese media reported incidents such as a high school student accidentally dying during a desert exploration project in 2021, where surprisingly, a high-risk adventure study tour did not have an accompanying medical team. In 2023, 9-year-old children on a study tour were seen sitting by the roadside eating self-heating meals…
These events have raised concerns among safety-conscious parents and are among the reasons for the cooling trend in study tours.
The saying, “reading ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles,” has long been a revered educational method. Behind the policy-driven study tour trend, perhaps the deeper reason lies in parents’ internal reflection on the form and content of education.
In her article, media professional Zhang Shuling mentioned a primary school teacher from Wuhan, who also volunteers at a museum, was assigned to a study tour in Anyang, Henan in 2019. She found that participants visiting the Yin Ruins and the Chinese Calligraphy Museum included not only seven students but also parents. The students did not care if the activity was a “study tour,” but the willingness of parents to participate together represented a greater interest in educational content and learning methods.
Retired outstanding frontline teacher Chen Ruiyun from mainland China expressed that children in China hardly have any free time from morning till night under the current circumstances. Besides attending classes and heavy homework loads, they also have to participate in various supplementary classes.
Teacher Chen said, “The cramming-style education has squeezed out their golden childhood, leaving them with no time to experience the beauty of nature, the mountains, rivers, and the changing seasons. The children have lost touch with reality and become dormant bookworms.”
She believes that only during summer and winter vacation do children have the opportunity to seek happiness in nature and life, which is the fundamental reason for the rise of study tours.
Teacher Chen added, “I often take children to the park for observation in my essay teaching, appreciating the colors, shapes, and changes of flowers, trees, and the beauty of the setting sun. We listen to the sounds of blooming flowers, and chase after butterflies dancing. At that moment, children blend with the cherry blossoms, becoming one with nature, each turning into an angel.”
Nevertheless, the big picture in mainland China continues to revolve around the baton of academic success. A teacher admitted that for the promotion of study tours, especially with the official encouragement policy in place, achieving authentic and diverse teaching methods is challenging. Despite official encouragement policies towards study tours, a vast majority of teachers remain skeptical.