The awards ceremony for the 2026 Fifth Hainan International Designers Competition was held on the afternoon of October 16 at Changying Wonderland in Haikou.

The gold awards in the competition’s two categories went to Island Holiday, a series of tourism products and IP derivatives, and Stagemon, AI Creative Performance Platform: An AI + XR Digital Tourism Experience Featuring Intangible Cultural Heritage Shadow Puppetry.

The awards ceremony for the 2026 Fifth Hainan International Designers Competition was held in Haikou on October 16. 

Photo by Li Hao.

Behind the figures of 1,304 entries and 99 award-winning designers and teams — lies nearly half a year of work exploring how design can empower cultural tourism, as well as a concentrated effort to test how creative ideas can be transformed into products and experiences.

The Hainan International Designers Competition is more than just a contest. It is an important instrument for developing Hainan into an international design island. Good design should make culture visible, give visitors something tangible to take home, and create experiences that remain in their memories.

Driven by the Hainan Free Trade Port’s opening-up policies, Hainan is accelerating the integration of design into its industrial ecosystem. The approach of using competitions to advance development and design to empower industries is becoming increasingly clear.

The competition not only showcased outstanding work but also highlighted the growing vitality of Hainan’s design sector.

Good Design Goes Beyond Individual Works

This year’s 99 winning entries covered two categories: tourism products and IP derivatives, and digital and experiential design for cultural tourism.

The entries demonstrate that using design to empower cultural tourism involves far more than cultural and creative products or intangible cultural heritage. Improving the quality of tourism merchandise, enhancing visitor services at scenic attractions, designing public facilities in cities, and promoting environmental protection and sustainable development in Hainan have all become areas for design innovation.

Some teams focused on public services and facilities for tourism destinations facing fluctuating, tide-like visitor flows. Other designers explored age-friendly and accessible travel and visitor experiences, while some creators used digital technologies and AI to reshape the connections between tourists and the places they visit.

In the judges’ view, genuine design begins with identifying problems arising from everyday needs and using systematic thinking to anticipate and solve them.

From Competition to Market: Turning Ideas into Business Opportunities

Beyond the awards themselves, the ceremony also served as a showcase for the competition’s achievements. Three award-winning teams took the stage to present their latest developments.

Ri'an Design shared new approaches to cultural tourism at the Sanpo Zhaopo Vinegar Culture Museum. Guangdong Weisu Cultural Tourism unveiled new accommodation concepts for Hainan, while Hainan Yeyutang presented a refreshed visual identity for its local brand.

A series of cooperation agreements was also signed following preliminary research and business matchmaking. These included the incorporation of winning works into the Hainan Trendy Products brand, collaboration between cultural and creative design teams and Changying Wonderland, and an agreement between a participating brand consultancy and Wenchang Longlou Story Cultural Tourism Co., Ltd.

Six teams signed agreements to join Hainan Trendy Products.

- Yegege Workshop has developed more than 300 cultural and creative products based on Hainan coconut carving, a nationally recognized item of intangible cultural heritage. Its products are supplied to museums and scenic attractions throughout Hainan and exported to markets in Southeast Asia, North Africa and South America.

- Hainan San Liang Liang Culture and Technology has sold more than one million individual cultural and creative products. Its products have gradually entered physical retail outlets at airports in Haikou and Sanya, as well as cultural tourism destinations.

- Tinghai Xiangtang Culture, which draws on Hainan agarwood and intangible cultural heritage, has opened a flagship store at The Westin Haikou. A new physical store in Sanya is scheduled to open before the end of the year. According to the company's head, sales of its competition entry series are expected to reach 10 million yuan this year.

- Hongkanling Ceramics Park has received more than 30,000 visitors and students participating in educational study tours at its premises in Qiaotou Town, Chengmai.

- Nandao Rhythm – Xingyuan Valley Guardians has completed prototype production of its entries.

- Hainan Mythology, meanwhile, has completed its first round of financing for an IP project and is planning to build an integrated industrial chain encompassing film and television productions, trendy collectible toys and derivative products, helping bring distinctive Hainan IP to international markets.

The team led by award-winning designer Wang Zijian has previously worked with several well-known tourist attractions in China. Through the competition, its entry, Positioning Strategy for International Cultural and Creative “Hero Products” Driven by Scenarios, attracted the attention of Changying Wonderland.

The team subsequently reached a cooperation agreement with Changying Hainan Cultural Industry Group Co., Ltd. to provide comprehensive design and consulting services for the attraction’s film and television IP.

Another notable agreement was signed between Wenchang Longlou Story Cultural Tourism Co., Ltd. and participating team Strategic Lion (Hainan) Brand Marketing Consulting Co., Ltd.

Longlou Town is home to China's Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site. Whenever a rocket launch takes place, tens of thousands of people flock to the town to witness the spectacle.

With support from the design team's branding and consulting services, the investor plans to develop The Story of Longlou, a coastal cultural tourism brand themed around space exploration.

Showcasing Designs That Are Ready to Take Shape

The exhibition area for the competition's winning entries brought together outstanding work in cultural tourism souvenirs, packaging, IP characters and derivatives, digital creativity and other fields.

Among the exhibits, the Green Mamba smart road bicycle, designed and developed by the Shenzhen-based Coolqi team, stood out as more than just a sports bicycle. It functions as an integrated intelligent cycling hub.

Skincare brand Xunhuiji has also tapped into the so-called healing economy through collaborations with intellectual property brands. Its co-branded products have generated more than 20 million yuan in online sales.

At the same time, the company has developed 4,000 mu (approximately 267 hectares) of organic aloe vera plantations in Hainan's Lingao and Ding'an counties, among other locations. This has enabled it to establish an integrated supply chain encompassing raw material cultivation, extraction and processing, design and research, and omnichannel sales, helping drive the development of Hainan's aloe vera industry.

Designers Jiang Sheng and Zeng Juan, from Hunan Province, worked with the Sanpo brand in Puqian Town, Wenchang, to create the Zhaopo Vinegar Cultural Experience Center.

The project has transformed a century-old Hainan fishing-community tradition of making sour soup — recognized as intangible cultural heritage — into an immersive, interactive and commercially viable cultural tourism experience.

Visitors can explore the culture, enjoy the scenery and sample local cuisine, gaining a deeper appreciation of the tradition. During its trial operation alone, the center welcomed more than 10,000 visitors.

The project is an example of how intangible cultural heritage can be revitalized, breathing new life into a century-old culinary tradition.

The awards ceremony for the 2026 Fifth Hainan International Designers Competition was held in Haikou on October 16. 

Photo by Li Hao.

Hainan Has More Creative Potential to Discover

By focusing on how design can empower tourism, this year's competition became a real-world journey of creative discovery across Hainan.

Through an integrated process encompassing the identification of needs, collection of entries, judging and selection, industry matchmaking and implementation, design proposals have moved beyond the drawing board, while designers have entered tourist attractions and markets. The competition has built a bridge between design and Hainan's industries.

Preliminary statistics show that since the competition was launched, total market sales of some winning products have exceeded 80 million yuan, while related industries have attracted investment intentions worth more than 100 million yuan.

The creative transformation of Hainan, however, is far from over.

Qiu Fengshun, a renowned designer from Taiwan and a cultural and creative product design consultant to the Palace Museum, who served as one of the competition's judges, observed that the key difference between cultural and creative design and industrial design lies in the story the former must convey.

Consumers, he noted, are not simply buying objects; they are buying the emotions and inspiration that the stories behind those objects evoke.

From visitors simply passing through to taking something home, and from a single competition to a network of industry partnerships, design is increasingly finding its way into tourist attractions and commercial markets. Hainan's next chapter in cultural tourism is taking shape, one creative idea at a time.