Scenic spot tickets sold out, popular homestays fully booked, and long queues forming outside time-honored restaurants – the recent May Day holiday saw a sustained release of travel enthusiasm. On May 5, Meituan released its "2026 May Day Holiday Consumption Insights Report," indicating that driven by the combination of spring break and extended leave-taking, travel scale during this year's holiday period grew significantly. Orders for medium and long-distance trips over 300 kilometers accounted for 46% of the total. The top ten popular destination cities were Beijing, Chengdu, Shanghai, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Xi'an, Shenzhen, Wuhan, and Nanjing. A growing number of travelers are setting their sights on smaller cities described as "less crowded, pristine, and full of local charm." According to Meituan data, the top ten cities for homestay bookings during the holiday were Kaifeng, Beihai, Datong, Dali, Yanbian, Rizhao, Jingdezhen, Jinzhou, Xishuangbanna, and Lijiang.
"Hidden gem counties" are becoming new travel destinations for young people. Meituan data shows this year's top ten popular county-level destinations during May Day were Yiwu in Zhejiang, Zhangjiagang in Jiangsu, Yongjia in Zhejiang, Haining in Zhejiang, Yining in Xinjiang, Changshu in Jiangsu, Qufu in Shandong, Wenling in Zhejiang, Kuytun in Xinjiang, and Jiangyin in Jiangsu. Among these, search heat for "Yiwu hotels" increased by 22% year-on-year, while "Haining hotels" saw a 17% year-on-year rise.
This year, the Dianping "Must-Visit List" expanded for the first time to cover over a hundred smaller cities. Overall traffic for the list during the holiday increased by more than 130% compared to pre-holiday levels, with smaller cities being a primary source of this growth. Among the hundred smaller cities newly added to the 2026 "Must-Eat List," non-local users accounted for 70%, a significant increase from before the holiday.
Sports events, notably the Chinese Super League and Jiangsu Super League, alongside music festivals and concerts, drove a wave of interest-focused travel consumption. During the holiday, the Shanghai Stadium, with a capacity of 80,000, hosted highly popular CSL matches. Meituan data indicates that search heat for "hotels near Shanghai Stadium" grew by 53% year-on-year during the match periods. The events also boosted local dining and surrounding scenic spot consumption. During May Day, "Jiangsu Super League" events contributed to a 40% year-on-year increase in orders for Huaiyang cuisine. Searches for "Nanjing duck blood vermicelli soup" rose 30% year-on-year, while searches for "Zhenjiang Three Unique Delicacies" surged by 203% year-on-year. Ticket popularity for classic scenic spots like the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum, Slender West Lake, and the Humble Administrator's Garden also climbed simultaneously.
Meituan data also showed that group-buying orders related to music festivals grew by 75% during the holiday. Searches for "support makeup" increased by 375% year-on-year, and searches for "music festival inflatable sofas" rose by 70% year-on-year.
Many young people chose to use the holiday to "refresh life achievements," with their travel and consumption motivations shifting from "appreciating scenery" to "self-breakthrough." Among the businesses featured on Dianping's "Must-Visit List," orders for self-challenge activities like boxing gyms, paragliding experience centers, and archery ranges all increased by over 150% compared to pre-holiday levels. Orders for hiking shoes grew by 105% compared to pre-holiday, and hotel bookings in the high-altitude destination of Tibet increased by 19% year-on-year.
"Lateral travel" emerged as a trend, with many people focusing on deeply experiencing local life in a different city during their break. Finding food loved by locals became a key holiday pleasure. Meituan data indicated that searches for "local specialty foods" rose by 86% year-on-year during the holiday, while searches for "local cuisine" increased by 56% year-on-year. Non-local user traffic for the Dianping "Must-Eat List" grew by nearly 250% compared to pre-holiday levels.
AI tools also became important assistants for many tourists planning their itineraries. Meituan's report showed that during the holiday, query volume for its AI assistant "Xiao Tuan" increased by 89% compared to the Spring Festival period, with an average message read-through rate of 61%. Inquiries were most concentrated on outdoor, cultural, and experiential destinations.