On October 7, the 2026 National Day holiday came to a close. Because only three working days separated this year's Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day, the "request 3 days off, get 13 days" arrangement created a 13-day travel window from September 25 to October 7, making it the most important tourism consumption period of the second half of the year. Roundup reports released by multiple online travel platforms show that the tourism market was hotter than in previous years, with long-haul trips, multi-city串联 tours, small-town travel, and outbound travel all stacking up as hot spots. On October 7, 2026, in Beijing, passengers entered and boarded trains at Beijing South Railway Station. That day was the last day of the National Day holiday, and railways nationwide hit their peak return passenger flow. Visual China Group photo.

Long-Haul Itineraries of 8 Days or More Nearly Double Year-on-Year; Tourists Visit About 1.2 Cities Per Person on Average

The super-long holiday stretched out travel rhythms, making ultra-long itineraries and multi-city串联 tours possible, while more travel demand was spread across two weeks instead of being crammed into the first day of National Day. According to a report jointly released by Tuniu and China Mobile's Wutong data, this year's travel boom heated up continuously from September 24, reaching its first peak on September 27, then another peak on the first day of the National Day holiday, and continuing through October 6. Users choosing early-bird trips to avoid the peak before the holiday accounted for more than 20%, while another more than 10% of tourists planned ultra-long itineraries spanning both the Mid-Autumn and National Day holidays. Ctrip data shows that long-haul orders of more than 800 kilometers accounted for about 24% during the Mid-Autumn segment and rose to about 36% during the "leave-request segment" from September 28 to 30.

Travel itineraries also clearly grew longer. Meituan data shows that long-haul travel orders of more than 800 kilometers increased 25% year-on-year, 31% of users stayed in one destination for 3 days or more, and hotel consecutive-stay orders rose 31% year-on-year. Tuniu data shows that this National Day holiday, the average number of travel days per person for domestic trips was close to 4 days, an increase of more than 30% from the same period last year. Ctrip's report shows that orders for long itineraries of 8 days or more nearly doubled, the most obvious change this year. Ctrip holiday product data shows that among domestic holiday travelers, the share of itineraries of 8 days or more rose from less than 6% in 2024 to more than 10% this year; among outbound holiday travelers, that proportion rose from about 29% to about 42%. Domestic holiday travelers stayed an average of about 3.9 days, the share of itineraries of 4 days or more exceeded 60% for the first time in 24 years, and the average one-way distance for domestic travel increased to about 560 kilometers. According to Qunar Travel data, during the double holiday period, bookings for routes of more than 2,000 kilometers rose more than 40% year-on-year, nearly 30% of tourists booked hotels in 2 or more cities, and tourists booking 3 cities and 4 or more cities increased more than 30% and 50% year-on-year respectively, with the popularity of "multi-city串联 tours" rising 35% year-on-year.

Reports from multiple online travel platforms show that cross-city travel combinations increased, and more and more tourists are willing to use different transportation methods such as planes and high-speed rail to link multiple cities in one trip, raising the "city content" of travel. Meituan data shows that during the "October 1" period, tourists visited about 1.2 cities per person on average, an increase from last year. Among them, users linking three or more cities in one trip through combinations of planes, high-speed rail, and other transportation rose 54% year-on-year. In terms of flight booking growth, the Top 5 treasure cities were Ganzhou, Garze, Yichun, Qinhuangdao, and Hotan. Tongcheng Travel's report also shows that compared with previous years, consumers spent more days in a single destination, and in-depth single-destination travel and multi-city "串联 tours" significantly pushed up hotel booking heat in popular destinations. Overnight visitor growth in traditional long-haul destinations during the National Day holiday exceeded 20%. Among them, hotel booking heat in Urumqi rose more than 20% year-on-year, Altay Prefecture rose more than 70%, and hotel and homestay booking heat in Diqing rose nearly 90% year-on-year.

Small-Town Attractions Dominate the National Popular Attraction Rankings; "County-Bound Travel" Turns from Reverse Trend into Mainstream

This National Day, "reverse travel turned out lonely" became a hot topic on social platforms. Tourists who wanted to go to small towns crowded county seats to their capacity limits. Reports from multiple online travel platforms show that this year's "October 1" travel extended toward small towns, and scenic areas in many county seats "dominated" the popular attraction rankings. According to Qunar Travel data, during the double holiday period, the national TOP 10 popular attractions were all claimed by small towns: Ge Xian Village in Shangrao, Jiangxi; Wuyuan Huangling in Shangrao, Jiangxi; Hetou Old Street in Tangshan, Hebei; Jiuzhaigou in Aba, Sichuan; Shapotou in Zhongwei, Ningxia; Wansuishan Martial Arts City in Kaifeng, Henan; Sanqingshan in Shangrao, Jiangxi; Humble Administrator's Garden in Suzhou, Jiangsu; Langya Ancient City in Linyi, Shandong; and Huangshan in Anhui.

At the same time, during the double holiday period, hotel booking heat in county seats rose 35% year-on-year, platform users stayed in hotels in more than a thousand counties nationwide, and Jiuzhaigou in Sichuan, Yangshuo in Guangxi, Burqin in Xinjiang, Antu in Jilin, Wuyuan in Jiangxi, Pingtan in Fujian, and Xiaojin in Sichuan were the top choices for county-level accommodation nationwide. Mafengwo big data also confirmed the rise of small towns: searches related to "county-bound travel" rose 238% month-on-month, while search heat for "linked tours" across multiple cities or even multiple countries rose 172% month-on-month. According to Meituan data, during the "October 1" period, small-group tour orders in Mangshi rose 345% year-on-year, and hotel orders in Shangrao rose 28% year-on-year. Meituan and Dianping data show that visits to entertainment locations in third-tier and lower-tier cities increased 258% compared with before the holiday, about 1.9 times the growth rate of first- and second-tier cities. The Top 10 treasure cities by heat on the "Must-Play List" were Nanchang, Zhongshan, Yangzhou, Zhuhai, Xuzhou, Luoyang, Shantou, Quanzhou, Yantai, and Tangshan.

According to Tongcheng Travel platform data, county-level destinations with relatively high national travel heat during the National Day holiday mainly included Huidong County, Yangshuo County, Kangding City, Shangri-La City, Boluo County, Changsha County, Wuyuan County, Pingtan County, Anji County, and Pingyao County; "dark horse" counties with leading passenger flow growth included Lingchuan County, Xiuwu County, Taibai County, and Qilian County, among which Lingchuan County's hotel and travel booking heat rose more than 230% year-on-year. In addition to counties in traditionally popular destinations, some relatively niche counties also performed well with highly distinctive natural landscapes and cultural resources, ranking among the top of their peers nationwide in passenger flow growth and becoming "dark horses" among county-level destinations. Tongcheng Travel platform data shows that Lingchuan County, Xiuwu County, Taibai County, Qilian County, Liuba County, Daocheng County, Deqin County, Huguan County, Daxin County, and Luding County ranked among the top county-level destinations nationwide in growth of bookings for hotel and travel products. Among them, Lingchuan County's hotel and travel booking heat rose more than 230% year-on-year, Xiuwu County more than 200%, Taibai County more than 130%, and Qilian County more than 100%. County-level destinations with larger booking heat increases all have highly distinctive cultural tourism experiences or autumn-viewing attractions. For example, Lingchuan County's South Taihang red leaves and cliff-hanging road self-driving, Xiuwu County's Yuntai Mountain autumn culture tour, and Taibai County's Taiyang Highway sea-of-clouds viewing are popular choices for autumn self-driving trips; Qilian County's unique scenery of snow mountains, danxia landforms, and grasslands in one frame became a county-level "hit" during this long holiday, with local visitor arrivals once exceeding the county's total population, and hotels and homestays "hard to book."

"In the past, travel revolved more around 'where to go'; today more people set off for 'a story,'" analyzed Yang Han, a researcher at Qunar Big Data Research Institute. Relying on ancient town night views, cliff night tours, and immersive intangible cultural heritage lantern fairs, Shangrao's Ge Xian Village became one of the most popular attractions during the holiday; Tangshan's Hetou Old Street in Hebei entered the TOP 10 with water night tours and live performances, and more and more "content-driven" attractions are becoming "new elites" in cultural tourism.

Autumn Viewing Combined with Performances and Events Drives Cross-City Travel; "Going to a City for an Event" Heats Up

Reports from multiple online travel platforms show that this October 1, in addition to popular cities and attractions, season-limited natural landscapes and sports events also became important reasons for tourists to travel across cities. Entering October, many northern regions welcomed their best autumn-viewing period of the year. From grasslands and colorful forests to populus euphratica and snow mountains, seasonal landscapes attracted tourists northward and westward, also driving up tourism heat in long-haul destinations such as Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia. Meituan data shows that this "October 1," the Top 10 popular northern autumn-viewing destinations were Urumqi, Hohhot, Ili, Kashgar Prefecture, Chifeng, Ordos, Bayingolin Prefecture, Zhangjiakou, Altay, and Aksu. Tongcheng Travel data shows that during National Day, the top ten destinations with relatively high booking heat for autumn travel routes and hotel-travel products were: Altay Prefecture in Xinjiang, Aba Prefecture in Sichuan, Yanbian in Jilin, Hinggan League in Inner Mongolia, Diqing Prefecture in Yunnan, Shangrao in Jiangxi, Benxi in Liaoning, Chengde in Hebei, Bazhong in Sichuan, and Jincheng in Shanxi. According to Tuniu data, travel trips to destinations such as Karamay, Bortala, and Altay all more than doubled compared with the same period last year.

At the same time, some people went to a city for a performance or a match. Meituan data shows that during the concert at Qingdao Citizen Fitness Center, hotel bookings nearby rose 36% year-on-year; hotel bookings around Chengdu Dong'an Lake Sports Park and Guangdong Olympic Sports Center rose 25% and 21% year-on-year respectively. From the perspective of attraction booking heat, during the "October 1" period the national Top 10 popular attractions were Laojun Mountain Scenic Area, Wansuishan Martial Arts City, Shanghai Disney Resort, Xi'an City Wall and Beilin Historical and Cultural Scenic Area, Universal Beijing Resort, Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum, Henan Baoquan Tourism Area, Qingming Shanghe Garden, Hengdian World Studios Qingming Shanghe Tu Park, and Hongshan Forest Zoo.

Unlike traditional sightseeing, this year's double holiday new玩法 placed more emphasis on participation. Fliggy data shows that the number of users booking "ancient village" related products rose more than 90% year-on-year; bookings for intangible cultural heritage handicraft experiences and visit products doubled year-on-year, with activities such as learning to make Huizhou ink in Huizhou, learning silver forging from intangible cultural heritage inheritors in Guizhou, and experiencing Li bamboo weaving in Hainan favored by young people; ticket bookings for attractions containing role interaction or immersive experiences rose 60% year-on-year. Fliggy also launched industrial study-tour products such as the Huzhou rocket factory, Shanghai Jiangnan Shipyard, and Xi'an Ice Peak Soda Factory, with tourists heading straight to production workshops. Young people also treated historic sites and museums as destinations worth a special trip. Ctrip data shows that among attraction booking orders by tourists aged 20 to 25, the share of cultural attractions rose from about 41% in 2024 to about 48%. Meituan and Dianping data show that visits to natural landscape entertainment locations on the "Must-Play List" increased 244% compared with before the holiday, while visits to cultural and historic sites rose 242%.

Families with children remained the main force for long-holiday travel. Ctrip data shows that during National Day, more than half of attraction tickets came from bookings by families with children, and parent-child ticket orders rose nearly 40% year-on-year. According to Shanghai LEGOLAND Resort, under the superposition of Mid-Autumn Festival, National Day, and multiple urban cultural tourism events, overall visitor flow remained high, single-day reception records were repeatedly broken, and on October 5 it welcomed a record high in single-day park admissions, with long-distance and inbound tourists rising year-on-year. Data disclosed by Shanghai LEGOLAND Resort shows that the LEGOLAND Hotel maintained high occupancy and operated at full occupancy for five consecutive days. On October 6, The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) saw at the Shanghai LEGOLAND site that the amusement park was crowded with visitors, and queue times for most attractions exceeded 50 minutes. At the same time, at 14:00, after lunchtime, the Hungry Big-Mouth Dragon Kitchen restaurant closest to the entrance still had no empty seats indoors or outdoors.

Outbound Long-Haul Travel Doubles Year-on-Year; Inbound Tourists Visit China Off-Peak

The super-long holiday also stretched the time dimension of outbound travel. Mafengwo big data shows that during the double holiday period, heat for long-haul and short-haul outbound travel rose 184% and 130% respectively, multi-country "linked tours" were favored, and "Singapore-Malaysia linked tours," "Australia-New Zealand linked tours," and "multi-country European linked tours" ranked in the top three by heat. Data from GZL, under Lingnan Holdings, shows that during the double holiday period, tourists on itineraries of 9 days or more accounted for more than 60%, travel numbers to Europe and the Americas rose about 30% year-on-year, among which travel numbers to France, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany surged 253% year-on-year, while the United Kingdom and UK-Ireland linked routes and the United States segment achieved about 200% growth. Tongcheng Travel data shows that heat for European destinations such as Iceland, Switzerland, and France all doubled year-on-year; booking heat for multi-country linked tours rose more than 60% year-on-year, with an average itinerary linking 2.8 countries and usually lasting more than 7 days. Mafengwo data shows Iceland's heat soared 183%.

The dividend from visa-free policies continued to be released. Qunar Travel data shows that during the double holiday period, hotel bookings in popular countries rose 30% year-on-year. Countries within the "three-hour flight circle" remained the most popular, while the super-long holiday also drove standout growth in long-haul travel. Thailand, South Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam, Australia, Indonesia, the United States, Singapore, Russia, and Italy ranked in the Top 10 popular countries. Hotel bookings in Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Nepal, and Finland rose more than 100% year-on-year, while heat in Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bangladesh, and Kenya rose more than 70%.

At the same time, previously little-visited niche destinations were also the cities with the highest growth in international hotel bookings during this year's double holiday. Some netizens joked that "open Moments and you can study world geography." Qunar data shows that niche cities in visa-free countries had the fastest heat growth. For example, hotel bookings in Nevsehir, Turkey rose 5 times year-on-year, and hotel bookings in Aktau, Kazakhstan rose 4.7 times year-on-year; in addition, for neighboring countries tourists already know well, they also found new cities to visit. Hotel bookings in Daegu, South Korea; Dalat and Cam Ranh, Vietnam; Paranaque, the Philippines; and Pagudpud, Indonesia all rose more than 100% year-on-year during the double holiday period, entering the Top 20 by growth. Chinese and foreign tourists also traveled toward each other during the double holiday period. Ctrip data shows that during the double holiday period, orders by Chinese tourists to Europe achieved double-digit growth year-on-year, while orders by European tourists to China doubled. Data from HopeGoo, Tongcheng Travel's international travel platform, shows that during the National Day holiday, flight booking heat from Hong Kong, Seoul, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Moscow, and other places to popular mainland tourist cities such as Nanjing and Hangzhou rose more than 20%, with some routes rising more than 80%.

However, foreign tourists are also learning to avoid domestic peak periods. Ctrip data shows that during the main National Day period this year, average daily inbound orders were about 30% of the ordinary pre-holiday level, while domestic travel was about 1.2 times; after National Day ended, inbound orders rebounded day by day, with average daily orders in the week after the holiday about 1.4 times those during National Day, and tourists from Thailand and Singapore especially preferred post-holiday travel. Among inbound travel orders, the share of European source markets rose to more than 20%, a double-digit increase from last year. From the perspective of inbound travel preferences, Ctrip data shows that among inbound attraction booking orders, the share of cultural attractions rose from about 32% in 2024 to about 43%, inbound orders for Mutianyu Great Wall grew nearly 4 times, and the Forbidden City and Terracotta Warriors each grew more than 1.3 times; among the Top 6 inbound attractions for tourists from the United Kingdom, France, Spain, and Italy, Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, Mutianyu Great Wall, Terracotta Warriors, Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, and the Temple of Heaven were all included.