Under the "super-long Golden Week" created by taking three days off and resting for thirteen, China's long holiday has become a peak tourism season globally. Data from multiple online travel platforms and travel agencies show that during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day double holiday, both outbound and inbound travel experienced a two-way surge. Recently, the topic "the whole world knows Chinese people are on holiday" trended on social media.
According to Qunar Travel data, Chinese tourists will set foot in and stay in hotels across more than 2,000 cities worldwide. Domestically, Chinese tourists have crowded famous mountains and rivers, while abroad, they have also "occupied" islands and streets around the globe. A Chinese netizen at Santa Monica Beach in the United States said: "Everyone lining up for photos is speaking Mandarin." Many netizens have posted photos and videos from overseas trips on social platforms, noting that overseas attractions are "full of Chinese tourists."
A video taken by a tourist in Egypt showed that next to a sightseeing vehicle, as it reversed, a Chinese voice prompt saying "Please pay attention to reversing" was clearly heard. At a street performance in Italy, when the performer interacted with the audience and asked where they were from, the loudest cheer came when China was mentioned. A tourist visiting Brazil said that in a local tour group, 8 out of 12 people were Chinese. Another tourist in New Zealand remarked, "You can't see local foreigners abroad anymore," and added, "If it weren't for a few English letters in the fjords, I'd think I was in Guilin."
Cross-Border Assembled Tours Orders Up 1.2 Times Year-on-Year, Chinese Tourists Staying in Hotels Across Over 2,000 Global Cities
Influenced by the "super-long holiday" of taking three days off and resting for thirteen, this year's Mid-Autumn and National Day outbound travel period has doubled compared to previous years. A report from Guangzhi Travel under Lingnan Holdings shows that this year's National Day outbound travel features a "double peak": the first wave of early departures occurred around September 24, and the second wave started on September 30. Popular destinations and routes include the Caucasus, New Zealand, Australia, Egypt, Singapore-Malaysia, France-Switzerland-Italy, Vietnam, Turkey, the United States, and Russia.
Data from multiple online travel platforms show that outbound travel heat reached its annual high during the Mid-Autumn Festival. On the eve of National Day (September 30), long-haul outbound tours departed in clusters. Guangzhi Travel stated that in addition to 10-15 day tours to Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Northern Europe, and the Caucasus, there were also 17-day tours to Canada's east and west coasts and 14-day tours to the U.S. east coast, offering extreme North American autumn scenery, departing simultaneously. Qunar's report shows that on the first day of National Day, Chinese tourists will set foot in and stay in hotels across more than 2,000 cities globally.
From the departure situation on the first day of National Day, travel routes are mainly divided into two categories. Guangzhi Travel said that for 6-8 day medium-to-long routes, visa-friendly countries such as Turkey, Russia, Vietnam, the UAE, Singapore, and Malaysia have become mainstream, with many being family travelers; pure vacation routes to the Maldives, Greece, Sabah in Malaysia, and Fiji also departed intensively on the first day, with the main group being young working people aged 25-45, many of whom are taking advantage of this last long holiday of the year to recharge. Some tourists boarded the "Disney Adventure" cruise and Royal Caribbean's "Spectrum of the Seas" on the first day of National Day to start their cruise journeys.
Additionally, the domestic trend of "multi-city tours" has evolved into "cross-border assembled tours" in the outbound context. Qunar Travel data shows that hotel orders for multi-country连 tours such as "Singapore+Malaysia," "France+Italy," and "Kenya+Tanzania" increased by 1.2 times year-on-year. On October 4, Ms. Wang, a Shanghai tourist who had just returned from Europe, told reporters that she and her newlywed husband went to Europe for their honeymoon, visiting Norway, Italy, and France, "finally checking off all the countries I always wanted to visit."
Three-Hour Flight Radius Remains the Mainstay, Long-Haul Products Heat Up Over 40%
From the perspective of outbound flight bookings, the "three-hour flight radius" still firmly holds the mainstay of outbound travel. Qunar Travel data shows that short-haul cities such as Bangkok, Seoul, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore are the hottest, with Thailand, South Korea, Malaysia, and Indonesia leading the list of popular countries. Boosted by the long holiday, long-haul flights have fully recovered. Qunar Travel data shows that travel products to Europe, South America, and Australia-New Zealand increased by over 40% year-on-year. Among them, flight booking growth to Belgium, Hungary, and Portugal all exceeded 80%, and hotel bookings for Italy, Greece, Switzerland, and Iceland grew by over 100%.
Coinciding with the spring flowers blooming in the Southern Hemisphere, flight bookings to Cape Town, South Africa, increased by 4.3 times, and under the favorable visa-free policy, flight bookings to São Paulo, Brazil, also doubled. Hotel bookings in the Maldives, New Zealand, and Australia all doubled. Tuniu stated that on the first day of the National Day holiday, the number of outbound long-haul travelers increased by nearly 10% year-on-year. Among popular outbound destinations, short-haul tours in Southeast Asia and in-depth long-haul tours in Europe are more popular choices for Tuniu users, with destinations such as South Korea, the Maldives, Indonesia, Turkey, Thailand, Egypt, Spain, Portugal, Malaysia, and New Zealand ranking high in popularity on the first day of the holiday.
Data from the Trip.com Group (NASDAQ: TCOM) platform shows that orders for short-haul destinations such as South Korea, Thailand, Australia, and Singapore have increased significantly, while long-haul destinations in Southern Europe have become new favorites. Dark horse cities like Chiang Mai, Busan, Barcelona, and Phuket have seen the fastest growth, and orders for visa-free and visa-on-arrival destinations have increased by over double digits year-on-year.
In overseas consumption, theme parks are the absolute mainstay. Meituan data shows that Hong Kong Disneyland, Universal Studios Singapore, Universal Studios Japan, Hong Kong Ocean Park, Macau Water Dance, Macau Tower, S.E.A. Aquarium Singapore, Hong Kong Palace Museum, and Singapore Zoo are among the popular outbound attractions, with Hong Kong, Singapore, and Macau having the most entertainment scenes listed. "Multiple parks in one city, play thoroughly in one trip" has become a typical outbound travel style. For many tourists, outbound travel is shifting from "visiting a country" to "completing a specific experience." Meituan data shows that arranging a family vacation for a theme park, seeing an exhibition at a museum, or experiencing local life in a city block—specific异地特色 activities are increasingly influencing travel decisions.
Chinese Holidays Become Global Tourism Peak Season, Inbound Day Tour Orders Up Over 4 Times Year-on-Year
Meanwhile, China's "super-long Golden Week" has also become a global tourism peak season. A report from Trip.com shows that China's long holiday is simultaneously becoming a peak season for "Chinese people going out to see the world" and "foreigners coming to China to celebrate Chinese festivals." During this year's double holiday, inbound tourism maintained double-digit growth, with inbound day tour orders increasing by over 4 times year-on-year, attraction tickets up over 220%, and train tickets up over 170%. Foreign tourists are shifting from "check-in sightseeing" to "in-depth experiences."
Coinciding with the Mid-Autumn Festival, traditional Chinese cultural experiences such as moon gazing, Hanfu photo shoots, and intangible cultural heritage handicrafts are particularly favored; orders for inbound group tours and food experience products grew faster, up over 10 times and over 7 times year-on-year, respectively. In terms of source markets, the inbound tourism source map is accelerating its expansion. Trip.com platform data shows that Asia remains the mainstay, contributing over 60% of orders; European market orders achieved double-digit year-on-year growth, with Spain and Italy growing by 148% and 140%, respectively.
Incremental growth in inbound tourism comes more from Europe and emerging source markets. Trip.com platform data shows that Russian inbound orders increased by 301% year-on-year, rising from 7th to 2nd place, and Brazil grew by 278%. New correspondences between source markets and destinations are also forming: Hunan ranks first in orders from Spain, Hainan ranks third in orders from Russia, and Sichuan ranks third in orders from both Singapore and Malaysia.
From the perspective of foreign tourists' inbound destinations, they are moving from first-tier cities to "mountain and water China" and continuing to sink into lower-tier cities. Trip.com platform data shows that nature and ethnic culture destinations have seen outstanding growth, with Altay inbound orders up 109% year-on-year, Yanbian up 120%, and the historical and cultural city of Nanjing up 126%. At the provincial level, Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangdong firmly hold the top three, while Fujian entered the top five with a 49% year-on-year increase; from the city tier perspective, inbound orders in fifth-tier cities increased by nearly 90% year-on-year, the highest growth rate among all tiers, while first-tier and new first-tier cities together account for 67%, still the mainstay, with incremental growth extending to lower-tier cities.
It is worth mentioning that cultural experience destinations have become a new highlight for inbound tourism. Trip.com's report shows that non-traditional inbound cities such as Shantou and Hohhot are beginning to appear on popular inbound lists, with Chaoshan Gongfu tea culture and grassland nomadic lifestyle becoming new touchpoints for attracting overseas tourists. In Trip.com's inbound cultural experience destination list, Luoyang tops the ranking. After Trip.com's "Inbound Traveler Party" landed in Luoyang, it continued to output content around peony culture and the ancient capital IP, reaching over 35 million views overseas.
Meanwhile, TRIP.COM-S (HKEX: 09961) continues to benefit from these trends, while Singapore Exchange (SGX: S68.SI) remains a key listing venue for regional travel-related companies.