As summer vacation approaches, study tour programs are flooding parents' WeChat Moments. In previous years, topics like Olympiad math, English, programming, and outdoor activities dominated. This year, there's only one theme: AI. Currently, mainstream AI study tour programs on the market are becoming increasingly expensive, with prices ranging from 10,000 to 30,000 yuan per session.

Some outrageously exaggerated promotional phrases have also gone viral:

'Start an AI company in 6 days,' 'Become a product manager at 8,' 'Build an AI application in 3 days'... In the era of AI technology, parents cannot escape educational anxiety. A questionnaire survey revealed that 44% of parents feel mildly anxious, 32% feel moderately anxious, and 10% experience severe anxiety, totaling 86%.

This has led to a sharp rise in demand for AI-related children's training and study tour programs.

A report by Changjiang Securities Research Institute indicates that the AI+education market is expected to reach 160 billion yuan by 2027. According to iiMedia Research's '2025 China Study Tour Market Development Status and Consumer Behavior Survey Data,' 63.03% of consumers expressed a 'strong willingness' to let their children participate in study tour activities.

Interestingly, unlike previous English or outdoor study tours, AI study tours place a strong emphasis on a technological atmosphere. As a result, some AI companies, AI industrial zones, and tech cities have become regular features on AI study tour promotional materials as 'key selling points.' In this new era, a new batch of internet-famous cities may emerge.

The 'Top Influencer' of the AI Era

How popular are AI study tours currently?

Ctrip data shows a 370% year-on-year increase in orders for AI-themed study tour products for the summer of 2026.

A closer look at various product pages reveals that leading AI companies such as Alibaba, DeepSeek, Unitree Robotics, Baidu, Hangzhou's 'Six Little Dragons,' and iFLYTEK are consistently featured on study tour itineraries. In addition to companies, cities housing corporate headquarters and universities have become primary promotional targets for educational institutions, travel agencies, and cultural tourism enterprises.

According to the 'Beijing Business Today,' Alibaba, Tencent, Douyin (TikTok), and JD.com have long been common internet study tour attractions used to drive traffic. Some agencies charge as much as 599 yuan for a single-day study camp at these 'tech giants.' Even more lucrative is the combination of cities, companies, and universities, which serves as the biggest traffic magnet in this field.

For example, a 4-day, 3-night tech exploration camp themed 'Zhejiang University × Alibaba × Robotics' went viral on social media. A 'Chinese Academy of Sciences AI MOSS Robot Training Three-Day Camp' in Beijing is priced at 4,580 yuan. The Shanghai market offers a one-day camp themed 'Fudan University + DeepSeek.' Harbin has introduced a study tour themed 'Harbin Institute of Technology + Combat Robots.' A Shenzhen agency offers a 3-day 'Bay Area Tech Exploration AI Study Camp' priced at 2,680 yuan.

In the past two years, tech-related study tour products have repeatedly struck a chord with parents, with nearly every trending industry able to boost a city's popularity.

A Typical example is Hefei. During the new energy vehicle era, Anhui's automotive production lines became a 'tech classroom' for youths. As early as 2024, Hefei received over 4.3 million visitors for science and innovation education, a 17.2% year-on-year increase, with the proportion of visitors from outside the province rising from 5% to 17.5%.

Leading companies like NIO opened their stamping, body, painting, and final assembly workshops, establishing eight major check-in points that attracted over 130,000 visitors. By 2025, Anhui's automobile production reached nearly 1.5 million units, with new energy vehicle production exceeding 730,000 units and automobile exports surpassing 460,000 units. This reignited the popularity of 'Anhui Science and Innovation Industry Study Tours' and 'AI Automobile Exploration Activities.'

Similarly, Hangzhou has long been a top destination for tech tourism due to its association with Alibaba.

After 2025, with the popularity of cutting-edge tech concepts like artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and the low-altitude economy, Hangzhou launched its 'Top Ten Tech Tourism Scenes (Routes).' In just one month, these routes received over 150,000 visitors, with individual routes seeing nearly 5,000 monthly visitors. This significantly drove growth in the study tour market, with a 100% year-on-year increase in out-of-province study tour orders.

Meanwhile, study tour institutions in tech hubs like Beijing, Shanghai, Harbin, and Shenzhen have also launched tech-focused study programs.

However, it's important to note that not all study tour products involve formal cooperation with companies, as some leading companies' tech centers are already open to the public free of charge. A Typical example is Baidu. Despite many AI study tours claiming to partner with Baidu and offer visits to the Baidu AI Center, media inquiries revealed that Baidu has no such program. The Baidu AI Center is freely open to the public, with no admission fees, and visitors can make their own reservations.

For some companies, visit quotas have become a scarce resource hyped up in the study tour market. It is reported that tickets for tours of several robotics companies have been scalped for as much as 3,000 yuan. Such exorbitant prices arise because many cutting-edge companies do not offer individual visit access, making limited entry permits highly sought-after commodities in the market.

Currently, several companies have publicly stated that they do not offer individual visits, including SE Robotics, Deep Robotics, ZYD Robotics, Qunhe Technology, and BrainCo. However, some companies, like iFLYTEK, have launched official study camps. As early as 2024, its AI study camp had already attracted 65,000 primary and secondary school students.

More interestingly, 'word games' are common in such study tour products. 'China Economic Net' once discovered that in an activity claiming to offer visits to the 'Hangzhou Six Little Dragons' Future Tech Experience Center, tourists were not actually visiting the companies but rather a lifestyle exhibition hall titled 'Encounter the Hangzhou Six Little Dragons.'

In the AI era, which destination truly qualifies as the 'top influencer'? In this surging market, where free venues are packaged as 'exclusive resources,' exhibition hall check-ins are misrepresented as 'corporate visits,' and scarce quotas are scalped for exorbitant prices... the unhealthy traffic-driven business practices of 'study tours' may never create a true 'top influencer.'

The Rise of Cultural Tourism 'New Infrastructure' Through AI Study Tours

Currently, an interesting phenomenon is emerging: tech-related study tour products are sparking a new wave of 'infrastructure' development across cities and cultural tourism enterprises. Unlike traditional study tour projects that rely on tourism routes and services to attract visitors, tech study tours inherently depend on venues, equipment, and scenarios.

As a result, from first-tier cities to lower-tier counties, AI science and innovation experience centers, immersive digital science museums, intelligent science exhibition halls, and robotics experience centers are springing up everywhere. According to China Youth Daily, as of now, there are 1,779 science museums and technology-related museums nationwide, not including science bases and experience centers established by companies locally.

As parents succumb to 'tech education' anxiety, cultural tourism enterprises, tech companies, and parent-child entertainment companies are all vying to enter this market.

For example, SenseTime collaborated with the International Alliance for Artificial Intelligence Education to create the 'Hong Kong AI Exploration Camp.' In July 2026, 'Nelbird,' a parent-child enterprise with 10 million member families and over 60 million cumulative services, opened its AI×EI Children's Science and Technology Museum in Beijing's Shougang Park. Celebrities such as Ming Xi, Ruoxi Du, and Meng Zhang attended the opening ceremony.

Promotional image of the AI×EI Children's Science and Technology Museum

There's no denying that the era of rapid technological advancement has fueled demand for various tech experience consumption.

According to the '2026 China Study Tour Market Sentiment Survey Report,' products related to technological innovation show significant growth potential, with AI+study tours emerging as a new hotspot. Consumer demand for scientific literacy is steadily rising. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that in 2024, 15.37% of Chinese citizens possessed scientific literacy, a 1.23 percentage point increase from the previous year.

Secondly, the traffic-driving effect of science museums in the AI era is indeed remarkable, with parents eagerly bringing their children for visits.

Take the Shenzhen Science and Technology Museum as an example. Public data shows that the museum features 950 innovative exhibits, among the highest in domestic science museums. Since its opening a year ago, it has received over 4 million domestic and international visitors, averaging more than 10,000 daily visits.

Science centers operated by related companies also perform strongly, by the way selling study tour products and tech-themed cultural and creative items.

Take Xinhua Bookstore's science education demonstration store in Hubei as an example. Since its opening in April, it has served over 300 visitors. The study tours have driven growth in related consumption, with sales of popular science books on themes like artificial intelligence, programming, and aerospace increasing by 65% year-on-year, and sales of tech-themed cultural and creative products reaching 18,000 yuan.

Similarly, Northwest Book City created a dedicated 'Science and Innovation Wonderland' space. As of May this year, it had conducted 12 study courses, attracted over 800 participants in various study activities, and generated nearly 100,000 yuan in direct revenue from study courses and derivative activities. AI cultural tourism seems to aim for a closed loop of 'study tours driving infrastructure, infrastructure attracting traffic.'

However, how long can this wave of tech-seeking enthusiasm last in the cultural tourism market?

It's important to note that the cost of investing in a science museum is substantial. Nelbird's Children's Science and Technology Museum cost 250 million yuan. Even smaller science museums require significant investment in VR/XR immersive equipment, AI interactive exhibits, and intelligent experience devices...

A detailed budget breakdown for an 'AI Smart Exhibition Hall Cultural Construction Project' disclosed by Shanghai Badu Intelligent Technology reveals that an AI smart exhibition hall requires: hardware equipment procurement (1,850,000 yuan) + software system development and procurement (1,200,000 yuan) + exhibition hall design and construction (950,000 yuan) + personnel training and operational preparation (300,000 yuan) + contingency funds (300,000 yuan) = 4,600,000 yuan.

In other words, an AI smart exhibition hall requires at least 4 million yuan.

For larger projects, investment can reach tens of millions. For example, a publicly disclosed budget for an artificial intelligence exhibition hall renovation project in one location estimated a total investment of 38.9591 million yuan, including: engineering costs (33.3264 million yuan), other construction costs (3.7775 million yuan), and contingency funds (1.8552 million yuan).

Whether subsequent visitor traffic can keep up is another matter. After all, China experienced a wave of science museum construction in the 1980s and 1990s. In addition to construction costs, annual operating expenses were equivalent to 10%-15% of the construction costs, but many locations failed to keep up, resulting in idle or abandoned science museums.

Both 'Guangming Daily' and 'Sichuan Civilization Network' have publicly called for rational construction of large-scale science museums. The echoes of history are never far away. While idle venues and dusty exhibits from the previous wave of science museum construction have not fully faded, a new round of infrastructure competition disguised as AI has already begun.

A Business That Doesn't Rely on AI for Profit

The popularity of study tours can be illustrated with a single set of data.

Currently, new players are flocking to this market. According to Tianyancha data, a staggering 67% of companies in this sector were established within the past 1-5 years.

Even the smallest teams can quickly start operating through outsourcing models. A survey of study tour practitioners by 51Job revealed that nearly 90% of respondents reported their institutions relied on part-time teams, with the most in-demand positions being study tour instructors (40.4%), assistant teachers (28.9%), and activity controllers (17.3%).

In the AI era, this 'simplified' model has become even more prevalent, especially in lower-tier cities with lower tech content. 'China Newsweek' reported on Changzhou as an example, noting that despite the lack of mature AI study tour programs locally, the booming AI education market has attracted a large number of 'profit-seekers.'

An industry truth rarely noticed by parents is that in this AI study tour frenzy, the players truly profiting handsomely are neither leading AI companies nor tech education experts, but rather middlemen who understand channels, packaging, and the rules of the game.

The vast majority of AI study tour agencies charging tens of thousands of yuan per program lack AI technology research and development capabilities, dedicated technical instructors, or even independent course development teams. Their core competitiveness is not teaching quality but resource integration:

They package freely accessible corporate exhibition halls, standardized generic courseware, part-time tour leaders, and mass-produced completion certificates into a 'high-end AI elite training' product, then sell it to parents through channel networks. In other words, current AI study tours are essentially a 'branded assembly' business disguised as technology.

This explains why many outdoor expansion or English training agencies can pivot to AI study tours in just a few months: no technical expertise is required, no talent pool is necessary. By simply partnering with third-party course providers upstream, they can obtain complete, ready-to-implement AI study tour solutions, including promotional scripts and poster templates.

From the profit distribution structure of the entire industry chain, profits are highly concentrated in the channels and marketing end, while the value of AI technology itself is minimized. Front-end enrollment channels (educational institutions, school partners, parent-child KOLs, travel agencies) take the lion's share of total revenue. Study tour city partners typically earn commissions based on performance.

Third-party course service providers responsible for implementation offer full-process services including courseware, instructors, venue coordination, and certificates, also claiming a piece of the pie. Among the remaining revenue, accommodations, dining, transportation, and venue admissions account for a portion of expenses. Ultimately, very little is truly invested in AI technology teaching or in-depth practical content development.

Moreover, this business boasts extremely high profit margins, with dedicated pricing teams behind the scenes.

According to 'China Business Network,' study tours generally cost 2-3 times more than regular tour groups. Industry insiders provide pricing strategies for study tour groups, recommending that activity pricing be set at double the cost to ensure at least a 40% profit margin. Even so, many AI study tour programs that students enroll in at high prices severely fail to match their promotions.

AI frontier deployment engineer Li Ming even straightforward that over 90% of the AI education market is 'deceptive.' A search on the complaint platform 'Heimao' using 'study tour' as a keyword yields over 2,375 complaints, with 'vastly different from reality' being a frequently cited reason.

Many teams visiting universities or tech giants for study tours essentially just take photos for parents, differing little from traditional tours. More 'high-end' programs may organize speech contests or roadshows.

Some parents complained that they spent 15,000 yuan to sign up their children for a 'Large Model Practical Training Camp', only for the children to learn how to use AI to generate PPTs and copywriting. Even more absurdly, some students memorized professional terms in advance for the roadshow. While teachers took photos from offstage (offstage), if a student couldn't answer a question from an 'investor', a teacher would step in to answer on their behalf.

In short, while the actual 'AI content' remains questionable, its ability to flood parents' social media feeds is undeniable.

Ultimately, AI research and learning is not a technical business but a marketing one that precisely exploits generational anxieties, monetizes through traffic channels, and capitalizes on trending opportunities. AI is merely the latest trendy concept—a decade ago, it was Math Olympiad; seven or eight years ago, it was kids' coding. The underlying business logic has never changed.

Trends always shift, and these lightweight intermediaries can simply move on to the next concept and exit gracefully.