Travel data from Qunar released on August 20 reveals that during the 2026 summer vacation, hotel and homestay bookings spanned over a thousand county-level cities nationwide.

Tourists staying for three or more consecutive nights grew by 20% year-on-year, while bookings in hidden-gem destinations like Guizhou's Xingyi and Jiangxi's Qianshan doubled compared to last summer.

High-quality accommodation in county towns is in particularly high demand, with four-star-and-above hotel orders rising by double digits year-on-year during the summer. High-end hotels now account for 23% of all county-level hotel bookings, meaning roughly one in every five orders is for a premium property.

The top 10 most popular county-level summer destinations (including county-level cities) are Dali in Yunnan, Xingyi in Guizhou, Yining in Xinjiang, Jinghong in Yunnan, Shangri-La in Yunnan, Dunhuang in Gansu, Kashgar in Xinjiang, Pingtan in Fujian, Yangshuo in Guangxi, and Yanji in Jilin.

County-town summer travel is undergoing a consumption upgrade, with average spending across all age groups rising. Post-80s travelers are the biggest spenders, averaging 526 yuan per booking for county-level hotels and homestays during the summer break.

Middle-class parents from first-tier and new first-tier cities are leading this trend, with the top source cities for county-level summer bookings being Chengdu, Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xi'an, Hangzhou, Kunming, and Wuhan.