Under the cover of night, the Azi Barbecue Restaurant in the convenient market of the Eighth Bureau in Zibo, Shandong, was packed with people. On the 360 degree panoramic stage, ancient style dances, historical sitcoms, and folk interactive performances take turns. Diners can enjoy eating, watching, playing, and taking photos while enjoying the experience. Our family came here for a trip and found that we could watch performances while eating barbecue, which felt great. ”Tianjin tourist Zheng Yi said. In Zibo, many restaurants integrate barbecue, Boshan cuisine and other delicacies with live performances and interactive experiences. Let barbecue go beyond just eating, and become a new cultural and tourism scene that can be experienced, spread, and reminisced, "said Zheng Feng, the head of Azi Barbecue Store. After the store regularly carried out live performances, customer traffic increased by more than 30% compared to last year. When tourists are no longer satisfied with "looking at the scenery", but pursue emotional value experiences, Zibo barbecue, this "eating while watching" model, has become a microcosm of China's expansion of entertainment forms and rich cultural tourism market. The just concluded May Day holiday has led to a concentrated release of travel demand among Chinese people. According to data released by the Ministry of Transport, the total number of cross regional personnel movements in the whole society during this holiday was 1517.128 million, with an average of 303.4256 million people per day, a year-on-year increase of 3.49%. In recent years, the popularity of China's cultural and tourism market has continued to rise. According to the sampling survey of domestic residents' travel in China released by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the number of domestic residents traveling will reach 6.522 billion in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 16.2%; Domestic residents spent 630 trillion yuan on travel, a year-on-year increase of 9.5%. As the cultural and tourism market heats up and residents' consumption concepts become increasingly mature and diverse, the integration of culture and tourism has become an important pivot to unleash the potential of tourism development. Professor Zhong Lina from the School of Tourism Science at Beijing International Studies University said that tourism consumption is gradually shifting towards a focus on cost-effectiveness and immersive experiences. Some scenic spots in China are gradually transitioning from ticket economy to experience economy by expanding their forms of performing arts. For example, the Tianmeng Tourist Area in Yimeng Mountain, Shandong Province, relies on projects such as live puppet shows to extend the average stay time of tourists in the mountains from 4-5 hours in the past to 7-8 hours; The Tangcheng Scenic Area in Xiangyang, Hubei Province, integrates immersive performances, folk arts, fashionable toys, and traditional cuisine, activating nighttime consumption in the scenic area. Enhancing the tourism experience and allowing tourists to transition from 'watching the scenery' to 'immersing themselves in the play' is the key. Implanting performing arts projects is conducive to accelerating the transformation of the cultural and tourism industry from traditional sightseeing models to deep experiential models. ”Cheng Chaogong, Chief Researcher of Tongcheng Research Institute, said. In Linyi, Shandong, large-scale live performances are becoming a new engine driving cultural and tourism consumption. The large-scale indoor performance program 'Guoxiu · Langya' was sold out during the May Day holiday, with a maximum of 11 additional performances per day. This live performance utilizes multi space stereoscopic reality and folding canopy technology to recreate the stories of historical figures such as Liu Hong and Zhuge Liang. Since its opening in 2023, it has performed over 1700 times and attracted more than 4 million viewers. In addition to attracting tourists through large-scale performing arts projects, more and more scenic spots are also strengthening interactive design, creating richer immersive experience scenes and interactive participation segments, allowing tourists and audiences not only to "enter the play", but also to become "story protagonists". At the Da Song Bu Ye Cheng Scenic Area in Dongping County, Tai'an, Shandong Province, tourists walk on the streets and occasionally pass by NPCs (non player characters) dressed in Song Dynasty costumes. In the scenic area, Yanqing invites tourists to practice archery, Lin Chong teaches tourists how to dance guns, and Meng Laolao holds tourists and talks about the elegant charm of the Song Dynasty. This immersive experience is full of emotional value, "said tourist Li Weiwei. According to the relevant person in charge of Dongping Lake Culture and Tourism Group, by increasing interactive activities, the duration of tourists' stay in the scenic area has been extended. In the first quarter of this year, the total amount of secondary consumption by tourists in the scenic area was nearly 10 million yuan. Looking at the Chinese cultural and tourism market, more and more regions are combining regional characteristics to expand their performing arts forms and enrich the cultural and tourism market. In Xi'an, the Chang'an Twelve Hour Theme Block has become the preferred check-in destination for Generation Z with its immersive script experience; In Henan, tourists can step into the Wansui Mountain Martial Arts City to recite poetry against the "ancients" and also try their skills in fun challenges; In Sichuan, "Dreaming Back to Qingcheng · Performing Arts Town" presents over 100 atmosphere interactive performances every day, with more than 100 NPCs immersing themselves in interactive activities with tourists throughout the day. According to data from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, during the May Day holiday, performance consumption increased by 17.6% year-on-year in terms of service consumption. The key monitored 78 pedestrian streets (commercial districts) saw an increase in passenger flow and revenue of 5.0% and 5.3% respectively year-on-year. The 2025 National Performance Market Briefing released by the China Performance Industry Association shows that there will be 198700 performances of large and medium-sized tourism performing arts projects in China in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 4.95%; The box office revenue was 17.442 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.43%. With the continuous emergence of various new forms of performing arts, the supply of the cultural and tourism market will become more abundant, constantly meeting the growing experiential consumption needs of consumers and injecting new vitality into the high-quality development of China's cultural and tourism industry. ”Fan Yubo, Deputy Director of the Institute of Economics at Shandong Academy of Social Sciences, said. (New Society)