Learn Hardcore Chinese: tā duì lǚyóu hěn yǒu xìngqù.

So 她对旅游很有兴趣 literally is “She, toward traveling, has a lot of interest.”
In English we say “interested in traveling”; in Chinese it’s 对…有兴趣.

Why do we need 很 (hěn) here? Does it always mean “very”?

In this sentence, 很 can mean “very,” but it also works as a kind of linking adverb that makes the sentence sound natural and complete.

她有兴趣 is grammatically possible, but feels a bit abrupt or emphatic.
她很有兴趣 sounds more natural, like “She is (really) interested.”

So:

With real emphasis: 她非常有兴趣 (“She’s extremely interested”).
With neutral or mild emphasis: 她很有兴趣 (“She is interested / very interested”).

Chinese often uses 很 before adjectives or adjective-like verbs even when English doesn’t explicitly say “very.”

Why do we say 有兴趣 (yǒu xìngqù) instead of just 兴趣?

兴趣 by itself is a noun meaning “interest (in something)”.
When you want to say “(someone) is interested,” you typically use:

有兴趣 — literally “to have interest”

So:

她对旅游有兴趣 = “She has interest in traveling” → “She is interested in traveling.”

Using 有 turns the noun 兴趣 into a predicate phrase (“have interest”), playing the role that “to be interested” plays in English.

Why is there no 是 (shì), like 她是对旅游很有兴趣?

是 is usually used to link nouns (A is B), e.g. 她是老师 (“She is a teacher”).
But 有兴趣 is a verb phrase, not a noun. In Chinese, verb or adjective predicates don’t take 是:

Correct: 她对旅游很有兴趣。
Incorrect: 她是对旅游很有兴趣。

You simply say “She toward traveling very have interest” — no copula needed.

Can I change the word order to 她很有兴趣对旅游?

No, that word order is unnatural and incorrect.
The pattern with 对 is:

[Subject] + 对 + [topic] + 很有兴趣

So you must keep 对 + 旅游 together before 很有兴趣:

✅ 她对旅游很有兴趣。
❌ 她很有兴趣对旅游。

The “toward/with regard to” part (对旅游) comes before the verb phrase (有兴趣).

Can I leave out 对, like 她旅游很有兴趣?

No, not in this structure. 旅游 without 对 would normally be interpreted as a verb (“to travel”), and 她旅游很有兴趣 doesn’t make sense in standard Mandarin.

To express “interested in X,” you need a preposition like 对:

✅ 她对旅游很有兴趣。 — She is very interested in traveling.
✅ 她对音乐很有兴趣。 — She is very interested in music.

Without 对, you’d use a different pattern, for example:

她很喜欢旅游。 — “She really likes to travel.”

What’s the difference between 旅游 (lǚyóu) and 旅行 (lǚxíng)?

Both can be translated as “to travel”, but there are some tendencies:

旅游 often has the sense of sightseeing / tourism, traveling for fun.
旅行 is more general “to travel / a trip,” for any kind of trip (business, moving, long journey, etc.).

In this sentence, 对旅游很有兴趣 suggests she is very interested in tourism / traveling for pleasure.
You could also say 她对旅行很有兴趣, which is also natural and close in meaning.

Is there a difference between 对…有兴趣 and 对…感兴趣?

Both mean “to be interested in …” and are very common:

对…有兴趣 — literally “have interest toward …”
对…感兴趣 — literally “feel interest toward …”

Nuance:

感兴趣 is slightly more common in everyday speech:
她对旅游很感兴趣。
有兴趣 is also natural; in some contexts it can feel a bit more neutral or slightly formal, but the difference is small.

You can usually treat them as interchangeable in beginner and intermediate usage.

Could I just say 她有兴趣旅游?

Yes, 她有兴趣旅游 is understandable and means “She has interest (in) traveling / She is interested in traveling.”
The nuance:

她对旅游很有兴趣 emphasizes “with regard to traveling, she is very interested.”
她有兴趣旅游 is more compact and slightly less formal-sounding.

Both are correct; the 对 + noun + 有兴趣 pattern is especially useful because you can plug in all kinds of nouns (音乐, 运动, 历史, etc.).

How is 兴趣 (xìngqù) pronounced, especially 趣 (qù)?

兴趣 is pronounced xìngqù:

兴 — xìng (4th tone)
趣 — qù (4th tone)

So you have two falling tones in a row: xìngqù.
English speakers sometimes guess qū or qǔ; that’s wrong here. It’s definitely qù (4th tone).

Is this sentence formal, casual, or neutral?

她对旅游很有兴趣。 is neutral and a bit bookish in everyday conversation.
In casual spoken Chinese, people might more often say:

她很喜欢旅游。 — “She really likes traveling.”
她特别想去旅游。 — “She really wants to travel.”

But 她对旅游很有兴趣 is perfectly correct and common in writing, interviews, news, or more careful speech.

Can I reverse it and say 旅游对她很有兴趣?

No, that changes the meaning and still sounds wrong.
旅游对她很有兴趣 would literally be “Traveling, toward her, has a lot of interest,” which is not natural Chinese.

The pattern X 对 Y … means X has some attitude/feeling toward Y:

她对旅游很有兴趣。 — She is very interested in traveling.
老师对她很有兴趣。 — The teacher is very interested in her.

You can’t just swap 她 and 旅游 without changing the roles and making it awkward.

Since 她 (tā) and 他 (tā) sound the same, how do people know it’s “she” and not “he” when speaking?

In spoken Mandarin, 她 (she) and 他 (he) are both pronounced tā and sound identical.
Listeners figure out gender from context, not from pronunciation.

In writing, the characters are different:

他 — he (with the “person” radical 亻)
她 — she (with the “woman” radical 女)

So in speech, this sentence could refer to “he” or “she”; only the written character 她 tells you it’s specifically “she.”