National Day holiday saw booming tourism, emerging trends

BEIJING/SHANGHAI - China's recent eight-day National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holiday has set a new benchmark for domestic tourism, with some 888 million trips made during the period, up 123 million from the seven-day National Day holiday in 2024.

Domestic tourism spending reached 809 billion yuan ($113.8 billion), which was up 108 billion yuan year-on-year, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

The extended holiday period, coupled with flexible "leave-stitching," allowed travelers to lengthen their itineraries. The average journey radius grew 14.8 percent to about 213 kilometers, and the average sightseeing radius within specific destinations expanded 24.5 percent to 23 kilometers, according to the China Tourism Academy.

Data from the country's leading online travel agencies, including Trip.com and Fliggy, shows that the ratio of bookings for long-haul domestic tours rose 3 percentage points year-on-year during the holiday, which ended on Wednesday, while outbound Chinese tourists visited more than 180 countries and regions.

China recorded a total of 16.34 million cross-border trips during the holiday, the National Immigration Administration said on Thursday.

Urban and rural residents alike embraced the holiday spirit. Some 22 percent of rural residents across the country took to the road, making 102 million trips - 11.5 percent of all domestic holiday journeys. More than 40 percent of travelers turned away from popular cities and opted for quieter ones, the academy said.

Another leading Chinese travel agency, Tongcheng Travel, said that hotel bookings in over 30 districts and counties across China doubled from last year on their platform.

Dai Bin, head of the China Tourism Academy, highlighted that holiday travel has become a regular leisure option for the country's rural residents, and young people from small towns have emerged as a new force in the tourism market.

Destinations and the market are decentralizing further, with once hidden gems - especially towns that exude local flavor, cultural charm and technological appeal - gaining favor among tourists, Dai added.

Holiday cultural and tourism consumption is increasingly focused on cultural experiences and emotional value. Both domestic and international tourists participated actively in cultural activities such as intangible cultural heritage, Hanfu and tea ceremony experiences, in addition to visiting well-established destinations.

The trend of combining local tourism with cultural heritage has become a hot topic online. A growing number of tourists now favor themed tours, with Meituan Travel data showing that searches for "night tours" surged 386.5 percent year-on-year during the holiday.

Multiple museums in Shanghai extended their opening hours into the night, Dunhuang's Mogao Grottoes rolled out digital guides, and popular destinations like the West Lake in East China's Hangzhou adopted crowd forecasting and smart reservation systems to smooth visitor flows.

Nationwide, over 29,000 cultural or tourism events were staged and consumption coupons totaling 480 million yuan were issued during the holiday, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

"People's destination choices reflect their interests and how they identify with the local lifestyle," said Hu Yang, vice-president of Tujia, a Chinese reservation platform for homestays.