The changes in Dongguan's tourism industry are closely related to the transformation and upgrading of its leading urban industries. Due to its location between Guangzhou and Shenzhen, Dongguan has vast farmland, affordable rent, convenient transportation, and favorable timing and location. In the 1980s, Hong Kong businessmen invested heavily in setting up factories in Dongguan. After the 1990s, with the increase in investment scale of investment clients from Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other places in Dongguan, government investment promotion and market tourism demand, five-star hotels became an important tourism resource in Dongguan. At the beginning of the 21st century, the number of five-star hotels in Dongguan was second only to Beijing and Shanghai.
After 2014, the settlement of high-tech companies' comprehensive industrial parks, relying on a good industrial tourism foundation, gradually transformed Dongguan's tourism attractions into industrial tourism. In 2018, Dongguan proposed to strive to build Dongguan into a "characteristic and diverse tourism destination". Starting from the factory stores in Houjie, each factory actively opens up production and visit channels, improves industrial tourism facilities, and assigns dedicated personnel to explain to tourists on site. Factory stores are opened in the factory area, becoming a complete tourist route. Subsequently, comprehensive industrial parks such as Songshan Lake and Huawei Town have become new tourist attractions.