A niche tourism segment has emerged in China this summer with a focus on small counties, in spite of the fiercely competitive nature of the market.

Counties with convenient transportation and those that are close to scenic spots are expected to witness further growth in the tourism and accommodation markets, industry players said.

Hotel bookings in fourth- and fifth-tier cities and county-level areas grow the fastest among different tourist areas, according to Qunar, a Beijing-based online travel agency.

In particular, high-end hotel bookings in small cities have jumped nearly 50 percent year-on-year this summer, and the most sought-after counties are in western China that are relatively cooler, Qunar found.

"Libo, a scenic county in Guizhou province, Southwest China, renowned for its karst mountains, has seen hotel bookings surge more than seven times over last summer. The growth rate tops the list nationwide," said Xiao Peng, a Qunar researcher.

Besides Libo, some other counties in Guizhou, as well as counties in Qinghai and Gansu provinces, are most popular with local hotel bookings surging. The top five hotels with the highest booking volumes in Libo this summer are high-end hotels and hotel chains, with an average price of over 397 yuan ($55.5) per night, the travel agency said.

Meanwhile, Guizhou's scenic areas have issued policies that by the end of this year, domestic college students, middle-school students and primary school students, and some other groups such as teachers, police officers and medical staff, will get complimentary admission to all A-level scenic spots in the province. Some consumers said they chose to visit Guizhou mainly because of such preferential policies.

"More travelers have been obtaining travel-related information through livestreaming sessions online," said Qiao Chengwei, a director of domestic travel products at Tuniu Corp, a Nanjing, Jiangsu province-based online travel agency.

"Still, there exist some unreasonably low-priced products for certain travel groups, and there are various self-paying trips indirectly included in the travel itinerary. We suggest tourists choose legitimate tourism products offering guaranteed after-sales service."

For long-distance travelers, what is important is whether or not a chosen county-level destination is conveniently accessible.

Some 80 percent of the top 20 domestic counties that have seen the highest growth in hotel bookings are either directly accessible by air, high-speed railway trains or regular trains, or located within a two-hour drive from the nearest train station, Qunar said.

For instance, the high-speed railway train station of Libo is only 11 kilometers away from Xiaoqikong (seven small arches) scenic area in the county, making it convenient for travelers to visit the sightseeing spot.

In August 2023, the high-speed railway line connecting Libo and Guiyang, the provincial capital of Guizhou, began operations. It takes a mere 57 minutes now to reach the other city. The number of tourists that Libo receives has since grown significantly, making it one of the most popular tourist destinations in Guizhou.

Guanling, another county in Guizhou, boasts rich tourism resources and convenient transportation facilities. The Shanghai-Kunming high-speed railway line has a stop at the county, and the fastest high-speed railway train journey from Guiyang to Guanling takes only 47 minutes.

Fusong, a county surrounded by dense forest, is located in Northeast China's Jilin province, northwest of Changbai Mountain. The county operates Changbaishan Airport, which serves as China's first airport dedicated to forest tourism.

The airport has direct flights connecting Fusong with more than 20 domestic cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Qingdao in Shandong province and Guangzhou in Guangdong province.

It is expected that by the end of 2025, the high-speed railway connecting Shenyang, the provincial capital of Liaoning province, and Changbaishan, will start operations. By then, passengers will need no more than about three hours in a high-speed train to travel from Beijing to Fusong.

"The level of tourism development of counties is highly correlated with the maturity of local infrastructure construction," said Cai Muzi, a Qunar researcher.

"The popularity of county-level tourism this year is expected to further accelerate the building of local infrastructure, which will then contribute to the growth of county-level tourism, thus shaping a virtuous cycle," Cai said.

She also said that an increasing number of hotel chains and midrange to high-end hotels are accelerating their expansion in fourth- and fifth-tier domestic cities and county-level markets to meet growing travel demand.

With hotels in many parts of the country lowering their prices this summer, accommodation prices in most counties remain flat compared with last summer, but higher than the levels seen in the summer of 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prices of rooms in high-end hotels in counties, however, have edged up 15 percent on average over the 2019 level, Qunar data showed.

Unlike in major cities where a large number of luxury hotels compete with each other fiercely, urban residents prefer to book high-end hotels in counties, boosting demand, market insiders said. Travelers from Chengdu, Chongqing, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou have topped the list of tourists visiting counties.

"The number of high-end hotels in counties is relatively small, and in some popular areas, supply even falls short of demand. This is influenced by the shift in people's travel habits, as more travelers are willing to venture into smaller cities to explore different landscapes and gain some unique experiences," Cai said.

"Besides, the number of parent-child trips have increased significantly in summer, and parents who take their children to counties often prefer to stay at better hotels."

A booming tourism market has fueled the demand for both the air and rail routes this summer. China is expecting 860 million railway passenger trips in July and August, averaging 13.87 million daily. The strong demand mainly comes from summer vacationers and family visitors, according to China State Railway Group Co Ltd, the country's railway operator.

From July 1 to Aug 31, China's air travel market is expected to continue its robust momentum and handle 133 million passenger trips via domestic and international flights, with the daily average reaching 2.15 million passenger trips, up 5 percent year-on-year and 10 percent over the summer of the pre-pandemic period in 2019, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China.