Tourists interact with actors at Yangliuqing ancient town in Tianjin, north China, Oct. 3, 2026. (Xinhua/Li Ran)
BEIJING, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) — China’s National Day travel market kicked off on a strong note, as many travelers linked the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day breaks with their annual leave. This trend has led to longer trips and a surge in bookings for long-haul journeys, multi-city itineraries and experience-based travel products.
LONGER BREAKS, FARTHER JOURNEYS
With the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day separated by only three working days this year, some travelers used three days of leave to link the two breaks into a 13-day holiday. Trip.com Group data showed that one in every 10 travelers combined the two holidays into an extended break.
Cao Shuai, CEO of Tongcheng Travel’s destination business division, said strong demand for the 13-day break has lengthened the overall consumption cycle and helped release demand for long-haul and in-depth travel.
Data from online travel platform Qunar showed that by Oct. 1, the first day of the National Day holiday, 20 percent of travelers had already reached the second city on their itineraries. Nearly 30 percent had booked hotels in at least two cities, while bookings involving stays in four or more cities surged 53 percent year on year.
For Yuan You, who works for an internet company, the 13-day break made it possible to split one holiday into two distinct stages. She planned to first spend three days in Jiuzhaigou, a UNESCO-listed scenic area in southwest China’s Sichuan Province known for its turquoise lakes and waterfalls, before continuing to Chengdu for the remainder of the break.
“With such a long break, spending the whole time either resting or sightseeing can become monotonous, so I opted for a mix of both,” Yuan said. In Chengdu, she chose to spend part of that extra time learning woodworking.
Longer breaks are encouraging people to travel farther. Flight bookings for journeys of more than 2,000 km rose 76 percent year on year during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day period, accounting for more than a quarter of all flight bookings, according to Meituan.
Wang Peng, an associate researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, said the extended break has encouraged more people to start traveling earlier, spreading trips over a longer period rather than concentrating them within a few peak days. That, Wang said, could help sustain demand across tourism, accommodation and catering services for longer periods of time.
Source: english.cctv.com
