As the nine-day Spring Festival holiday, the longest on record, receded into memory, my WeChat feed told a different story this year. Gone was the frantic, special-forces-style rush of the past — the scramble for the first high-speed train at dawn and the exhaustion of back-to-back sightseeing.

In its place was a slower, more relaxed holiday. One friend spent three consecutive mornings capturing nothing but the steam rising from a breakfast stall in Hainan province. Others abandoned the checklist of must-see landmarks for a quiet courtyard in Dali, Yunnan province, where the entire holiday was savored over endless pots of tea with a few close friends.

Such evolving travel patterns are precisely what policymakers aim to foster. Sojourn tourism was formally designated by China's authorities this January as one of the nation's key new drivers of service consumption.

Data from the China Tourism Academy show that potential demand in China's sojourn market could reach 600 million visits, with the total market expected to approach 3 trillion yuan ($437 billion) a year.

As this trend takes hold, Wu Pu, head of the Strategic Research Institute at the China Tourism Academy, told me in an interview that sojourn model will stimulate a broad range of consumer demand.

"Tourists settling in naturally generate lifestyle-related consumption, including spending on education, healthcare, and other services," Wu said. "This consumption is comprehensive and often exceeds local spending levels."

The spending potential deepens as the purpose of sojourning expands. In my conversations with these "temporary locals", I found that the appeal of sojourn tourism has evolved beyond the traditional pursuit of warm weather or postcard-perfect views to encompass a broader range of motivations.

Chongli district in Hebei province, for instance, has emerged as a sojourn destination for a very different reason. Unlike Hainan province, which draws long-stay visitors with its winter sunshine, Chongli appeals to them with its ski slopes and other winter sports attractions.

Data from Tujia, a homestay booking platform, showed that during the recently concluded winter sports season, bookings for ski homestays in Chongli rose 60 percent year-on-year between October 2025 and March 2026, with nearly one-fifth consisting of long-stay sojourn bookings lasting seven days or more.

Notably, Wu said today's sojourners are no longer merely consumers, and some are becoming business owners in their own right.

"We have seen this in places such as Dali and Lijiang in Yunnan province," Wu said. "Some people who initially planned to stay for just a month were drawn by the lifestyle and low accommodation costs. They eventually opened homestays of their own while continuing to live as sojourners."

In Yunnan, the authorities have rolled out a dedicated five-year plan for sojourn development that calls for greater support for those looking to start businesses during their stay.

It seeks to better integrate sojourn living with innovation and entrepreneurship, build professional incubation platforms, and improve talent policies to attract people not only for extended stays, but also for new ventures.

However, as an emerging industry and lifestyle, sojourn living is not without its challenges.

Wu highlighted that more work is needed in areas such as standardizing public services, improving forward planning, and addressing the economic side effects that sojourn inflows can bring, including higher prices, housing costs and living expenses in destination areas.

"There is still a need for further discussion over how sojourn communities can better balance shared participation and collective governance," he added.

Zhang Chenxu contributed to this story.