China's booming tourism market has helped foster new career opportunities as people's travel demands upgrade, the People's Daily overseas edition reported earlier this week.
New jobs such as travel video creator, private travel planner and tour guide that can be filled online are picking up popularity among freelancers, some of whom might not have a travel work background, according to the newspaper.
Zhoima and her husband used to run a snack shop in Daocheng County of Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in southwest China's Sichuan Province. The business barely allowed them to make ends meet.
As short video platforms thrive in China, Zhoima has turned herself into a content creator by posting videos of natural sceneries and food unique to the region.
Now the couple are preparing their residence to offer homestay service to tourists and followers who want to experience the life demonstrated in Zhoima's popular videos.
Xing Shuangqing had been working as a tour guide with a traditional travel agency for nearly two years. After he noticed the increase in independent tours and the rising demand for customized tourist products, he changed his job to be a private travel planner based in Beijing to help tourists learn and see more about the city.
Xing told the newspaper that he believes such new types of travel jobs can survive in the new round of technological innovation.
Artificial intelligence cannot replace humans in providing customer-friendly and interactive travel experiences, Xing was quoted as saying.
Statistics from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism showed that China's tourism sector created 79.9 million direct and indirect jobs in 2018, accounting for nearly 10.3 percent of the total employed population.
