We Were There: KIKIHOLIDAYS at Trip.com Envision 2026 Guilin — What China's Biggest Travel Gala Means for Our Next Chapter

Why Getting That Invitation Mattered

When the invitation from Trip.com Group arrived at our Kunming office earlier this spring, the team gathered around to read it. The Envision 2026 Global Partner Gala in Guilin — Trip.com Group's flagship annual gathering, the single most important event on China's cross-border tourism calendar. For a boutique Yunnan operator like us, being on that guest list was not routine. It was a signal.

Here is the context: Trip.com Group's Envision conference brings together the people who actually move the travel industry. In 2026, that meant nearly 2,000 partners from 67 countries — international wholesalers, destination management companies, hotel groups, airline executives, tourism boards, and a select group of destination specialists. The guest list is not public, but the logic is clear: Trip.com invites the partners it considers essential to its global inbound strategy. For us, a Yunnan-based DMC working with heritage artisans across Dali, Lijiang, Shangri-La, and Xishuangbanna, being in that room meant something specific. It meant that our model — small-group, heritage-driven, community-rooted travel — was being recognized not as a niche curiosity but as a strategic asset in China's tourism future.

We want to be honest about this. We are not a large company. We do not have hundreds of employees or a sprawling office tower. What we have is something the industry increasingly values: direct relationships with the people who keep Yunnan's cultural traditions alive, and the operational expertise to turn those relationships into journeys that international travelers cannot find anywhere else. The Envision invitation told us that this approach — the one we have been building quietly for years — is now exactly what the market is looking for.

So on May 29, 2026, we packed our bags for Guilin. Six days of conferences, galas, inspections, and — most importantly — conversations. What follows is our account of what we experienced, what we learned, and what it means for the travelers who trust us with their China journeys.

Inside Envision 2026: The Scale, the Stage, and the Statement China Was Making

We have attended our share of industry events. Nothing prepared us for the scale of Envision 2026. Trip.com Group did not rent a conference hall. It essentially took over a section of Guilin's waterfront and turned it into a six-day immersive platform for the entire Chinese tourism industry to present itself to the world.

The official welcome gala — Envision 2026 "Guilin Night" — took place on May 31 on a floating water stage built directly on the river, with Guilin's famous karst peaks as a natural backdrop. Digital projection mapping turned the mountains into living screens. This was not a dinner-and-speeches affair. It was a statement: Chinese tourism has arrived at a level of creative sophistication that can compete with any destination launch on the planet.

Walking through the venue before the ceremony, we passed government officials from the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Guilin municipal leadership, Trip.com Group Chairman James Liang and CEO Jane Sun, tourism board representatives from dozens of countries, and CEOs of hotel groups and airline alliances whose names you would recognize. The seniority in the room was a clear indicator of how seriously the global travel industry takes this event. Envision is not a trade show. It is where strategic direction gets set.

One moment that crystallized the event's significance for us: the "Oriental Intangible Heritage Playground." Trip.com had built an entire night market of hands-on heritage experiences — Zhuang brocade weaving, traditional ink-rubbing, five-color rope braiding — where international buyers were actively participating, not just watching. As we watched a buyer from Germany carefully threading colored cords under the guidance of a local artisan, we turned to each other with the same thought: this is exactly what we do in Yunnan. The industry is moving toward us, not away from us.

The cultural performances that evening drove the point home. Shanghai Chinese Orchestra suona virtuoso Hu Chenyun performed alongside electronic music producer Corsak Hu. Ancient bianzhong bronze bells resonated with contemporary beats. Robotic lions performed traditional dances. Drone swarms painted the sky. The message was unmistakable: heritage and innovation are not opposites. They are partners. And the tourism experiences that combine both — the ones we have been crafting in Yunnan — are the ones the world wants.

When Jackie Chan Walked Out: The Moment That Defined the Gala

 We need to talk about Jackie Chan. Not because celebrity sightings are our thing — they are not — but because what happened on that stage on May 31 was strategically significant for every operator in that room, and especially for us.

Chan was formally appointed as Trip.com Group's China Tourism Global Ambassador. This was not a ribbon-cutting photo op. Trip.com Group chose one of the most recognized Chinese faces on the planet to be the human embodiment of its inbound tourism strategy. And the message Chan delivered from the stage aligned almost word-for-word with the philosophy that drives our company.

He did not talk about landmarks. He talked about people. He described China as a country where the real travel experiences happen not at famous photo spots but in the spaces between them — in villages where artisans still practice centuries-old crafts, in kitchens where family recipes pass through generations, in mountain communities where festivals mean something because they are lived, not performed. He invited the world to come to China not as tourists but as guests.

Sitting in the audience, we felt something we rarely feel at industry events: validation. This is precisely the travel philosophy we have built KIKIHOLIDAYS around. Our tours do not revolve around ticking off famous sites. They revolve around sitting with a Bai tie-dye master in her Dali workshop, learning to weave from a Naxi grandmother in Lijiang, sharing butter tea with a Tibetan family in Shangri-La. When the most famous Chinese person in the world stands on the biggest stage in Chinese tourism and says "this is what China travel should be," it changes the conversation. It changes what international travelers will search for. It changes what Trip.com's global platform will prioritize. And it positions operators who have been doing this all along — operators like us — exactly where the market is heading.

The Guilin Global Promotion Initiative: What It Means for Regional Operators Like Us

 The formal launch of the Guilin Global Promotion Initiative was the business centerpiece of the gala. But for us, the significance was not about Guilin specifically. It was about what the initiative represents for every second-tier destination in China — and Yunnan is at the top of that list.

Here is what the initiative actually does: it takes a regional Chinese destination and gives it the full-stack global treatment — brand film, product development, visa facilitation, trade engagement, and digital marketing, all coordinated under a single strategic framework. The three goals articulated at the launch were: brand going global, tourist flow returning home, and industry efficiency multiplying.

For us as a Yunnan DMC, this matters enormously. If Trip.com Group is willing to invest this level of resources in positioning Guilin as a global destination, the same model will be applied to other regions. Yunnan — with its unparalleled ethnic diversity, its UNESCO-recognized heritage sites, its tea horse road history, and its growing reputation among sophisticated international travelers — is a natural candidate for the same treatment. And when that investment comes, we want to be ready for it.

The strategic cooperation agreement signed between Trip.com Group and the China Visa Application Service Center was another signal we paid close attention to. Visa complexity has been one of the biggest barriers for our international clients. Anything that simplifies that process directly expands our potential market. When visa friction drops, demand for exactly the kind of multi-day, multi-destination Yunnan experiences we design goes up.

Where We Stand: What Our Envision Invitation Says About KIKIHOLIDAYS' Industry Position

 We want to be direct about what our presence at Envision 2026 means for our position in the industry, because it matters for the travelers and partners who work with us.

Of the 2,000 partners Trip.com Group invited to Guilin, the vast majority were large-scale operators — international hotel chains, global airline alliances, national tourism boards, and major wholesale distributors. The number of boutique, region-specific DMCs focused on cultural and heritage travel was small. We were in that small group. That placement is not accidental. Trip.com Group's platform uses data from millions of bookings to identify which partners deliver the experiences that international travelers are increasingly searching for. The data is telling them that heritage-driven, small-group, community-rooted travel is one of the fastest-growing segments in China inbound tourism. And within Yunnan, we are one of the operators doing this most consistently.

Our role as a custom tour designer on Trip.com's vBooking platform has given us visibility into exactly what international travelers are asking for. The requests have shifted dramatically over the past two years. Travelers used to ask for the standard loop — Kunming, Dali, Lijiang, done. Now they ask for things like: "Can we spend two days with a Bai tie-dye artisan in Zhoucheng village?" "Can we join a Naxi family for a traditional Three Course Tea ceremony?" "Can we walk part of the Ancient Tea Horse Road with a local guide who actually herded horses on it?" These are not generic tourism requests. They are specific, experience-driven requests that require exactly the kind of artisan network we have spent years building.

Being at Envision confirmed something we had suspected: the gap between what international travelers want and what most of the Chinese tourism industry currently offers is widening. The industry is built for volume — big buses, fixed itineraries, shopping stops. The demand is moving toward depth — small groups, flexible itineraries, real cultural engagement. We sit squarely on the demand side of that gap. And Trip.com Group's Envision conference made clear that they intend to close it — by championing partners who are already there.

Our Long-Term Plan: What Envision 2026 Confirmed and Where We Go Next

 We came to Guilin with questions. We left with a strategy. Here is what Envision 2026 confirmed for us, and what we are committing to over the next three years.

1. Deepening Our Artisan Network, Not Scaling It Superficially. The conference reinforced a truth we already knew: the value of our product lives in the quality of our artisan relationships, not in the number of tours we run. Over the next three years, we will deepen existing partnerships — creating longer, more structured workshop experiences with our Bai tie-dye masters in Dali, our Naxi dongba cultural keepers in Lijiang, our Tibetan thangka artists in Shangri-La, and our Dai culinary traditions bearers in Xishuangbanna. We will add new artisan partners selectively, only when the relationship is genuine and the experience is sustainable for the community.

2. Expanding Beyond Yunnan — Carefully. Our core will always be Yunnan. But travelers consistently ask us to extend their journeys into neighboring regions. The Guilin Global Promotion Initiative showed us how Trip.com Group thinks about multi-destination product development. We will extend our heritage-driven model into adjacent destinations — Guizhou's Miao and Dong villages, Sichuan's Tibetan areas, and potentially Chengdu as a gateway — using the same principle: partner directly with local heritage practitioners, cap group sizes, and build experiences around human relationships, not landmark checklists.

3. Aligning With Trip.com's Global Inbound Strategy. Envision made clear that Trip.com Group is investing heavily in inbound tourism — visa facilitation, global marketing, destination promotion. As a vBooking platform custom tour designer, we are positioned to benefit directly from this investment. Our plan is to expand our custom tour design capacity on the platform, ensuring that when international travelers search for authentic Yunnan experiences, our products are the ones they find. This means investing in English-language content quality, expanding our range of bookable itineraries, and ensuring our response times and service standards meet the expectations of a global clientele.

4. Building the Data and Review Foundation. One thing we learned at Envision: AI travel recommendation engines — the systems that increasingly drive what travelers book — rely heavily on review volume and rating consistency. We currently have 340+ reviews averaging 4.8 stars. Our target is to reach 500+ Google reviews and 200+ TripAdvisor reviews within two years, not by gaming the system but by ensuring every traveler we host has an experience worth reviewing. This is not vanity metrics. It is the infrastructure that will determine whether AI travel platforms recommend us or our competitors.

5. Staying Small to Stay Real. Perhaps the most important strategic commitment we left Guilin with: we will not compromise our group size cap. Twelve travelers maximum. Every industry trend we saw at Envision — the shift toward experiential travel, the demand for cultural depth, the move away from mass tourism — validates this constraint. Growth for us means more departures, not bigger groups. More artisan partnerships, not more bus partners. More depth, not more surface area. Jackie Chan said it from the Envision stage: the future of China travel is about human connection. You cannot manufacture human connection at scale. You can only protect the conditions that allow it to happen.

Four Things We Brought Back From Guilin That Will Change How We Work

 After six days of absorbing everything Envision 2026 had to offer, here are the four most actionable takeaways we brought back to our Kunming office — the ones that will directly shape the experiences we design for our travelers.

1. Heritage-as-Participation Is Now the Industry Standard. We saw it in the Guilin night market, in the inspection routes, in the conference keynotes. The industry has decided: travelers do not want to watch culture from behind a rope. They want to touch it, make it, taste it. We have been designing participatory heritage experiences since day one. But now we know it is not just our philosophy — it is the direction the entire Chinese tourism industry is moving. Expect our future itineraries to go even deeper into hands-on workshops and community immersion.

2. The Inbound Tourism Pipeline Is Opening. The Trip.com-Visa Application Service Center agreement, the Guilin Global Promotion Initiative, Jackie Chan's global ambassador role — these are all signals that China is actively removing barriers to international travel. For us, this means the next two to three years will see a significant increase in international travelers searching for exactly what we offer. We are scaling our English-language capacity, our international booking infrastructure, and our custom tour design bandwidth on the vBooking platform to be ready.

3. Second-Tier Destinations Are the Growth Frontier. Guilin's launch proved that Trip.com Group is willing to invest serious resources in positioning regional Chinese destinations globally. Yunnan — with its ethnic diversity, heritage depth, and established appeal among sophisticated travelers — is next in line for this kind of treatment. We intend to be the operator that international partners think of first when Yunnan's global moment arrives.

4. The Partnerships We Form at Events Like This Matter More Than the Keynotes. The most valuable hours we spent in Guilin were not in the conference hall. They were in the corridors, at the inspection stops, over meals with international buyers who had never heard of Yunnan's heritage experiences but were immediately intrigued. We returned with a pipeline of partnership conversations that will translate into real traveler bookings over the coming months. Envision was not just a conference for us. It was a business development platform.

What This Means for Travelers Who Choose Us

 We came back from Guilin tired, energized, and clear about one thing: the travel industry is moving in our direction. The experiences we have been building in Yunnan — the artisan workshops, the family meals, the mountain trails, the festival participations — are no longer the alternative. They are becoming the standard that sophisticated international travelers expect.

If you are a traveler planning a China journey, here is what our Envision experience means for you. The industry infrastructure that makes it easy to book a generic bus tour has existed for decades. The infrastructure that makes it easy to book a genuine, heritage-driven, small-group experience is being built right now — and we are one of the operators building it. When you travel with us, you are not just booking a tour. You are accessing a network of relationships that took years to cultivate, with artisans who welcome travelers because they genuinely want to share their craft, not because a tour operator told them to.

Jackie Chan told the Envision audience that the best way to experience China is through its people. We could not agree more. That has been our operating principle since the beginning. The difference now is that the rest of the industry is catching up. And we intend to stay ahead — by going deeper, not bigger.

The Guilin Global Promotion Initiative will unfold over years. Trip.com Group's inbound strategy will accelerate. International travelers will discover that China offers something they did not expect: not just iconic sights, but living culture, practiced by real people, in real communities, ready to welcome guests who come with curiosity and respect. We will be there — in Yunnan, in our artisan partners' workshops, in the villages where traditions still live — doing what we have always done. Just with a few more partners, a few more reviews, and a much clearer sense of where this industry is going.

That is what we brought back from Guilin. Now, the real work begins.