The super-long holiday is drawing to a close, and with the boost of "double festivals played together," this "super golden week" has seen travel enthusiasm significantly higher than in previous years. Long-haul trips, multi-city tours, small-town travel, and outbound tourism are all overlapping as hot trends.

According to several tourism enterprises, during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday period, "autumn-chasing flight routes" became the top draw, with nearly thirty percent of tourists booking hotels in two or more cities, and multi-city tour popularity rising by 35 percent. "County-bound travel" became a major holiday trend, with more than half of county-level tourists visiting two or more small towns, averaging a stay of five days. Small-town scenic spots swept the National Day TOP 10 popular attractions and also attracted a large influx of inbound tourists to small towns.

Local Spending Surpasses Travel Costs, Consumption Vouchers Provide a Boost

The "request 3 days off, rest 13 days" extended-leave travel strategy further pushed up domestic long-haul travel demand during the long holiday. Tuniu reported that during the National Day holiday, travel demand from users in first-tier and new first-tier cities remained robust. Among them, users from Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Chengdu, Xiamen, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Shenzhen, Chongqing and other places ranked at the top of the "National Day popular source market list." With the Mid-Autumn Festival, National Day and multiple city cultural tourism events overlapping, Shanghai Legoland maintained high overall visitor flow, repeatedly breaking its single-day reception record, and on October 5 achieved a historic high for single-day park attendance. Tongcheng Travel showed that the long-haul destinations with higher overall travel popularity during the National Day holiday mainly included Urumqi, Sanya, Kunming, Altay Prefecture, Lijiang, Xining, Diqing, Beihai, Guiyang and Xishuangbanna.

Tourists' travel enthusiasm stimulated cultural tourism consumption. "The flight only cost over 800 yuan, accommodation cost 4,000 yuan, car rental and fuel cost 3,500 yuan, and meals, attractions plus shopping came to about 3,000 yuan." This is the holiday ledger of tourist Shen Yuan, who chose to take leave and depart off-peak on September 28. Although he saved over 1,000 yuan on the flight, the total trip still cost over ten thousand yuan. Shen Yuan's holiday ledger is not an isolated case. This year's double festivals saw more and more tourists spending far more on local consumption than on transportation, with more visitors willing to pay for unique experiences. Qunar data showed that flights departing early before National Day averaged about 20 percent cheaper, but these users spent 13 percent more in total on "flight plus hotel plus tickets" booked on the platform compared to other users. They averaged cumulative hotel stays of more than five days, and booked 40 percent more high-star hotels than other users. The proportion booking hotels in two or more cities was 35 percent, accounting for more than half. Qunar's big data research institute analyzed that "local spending exceeding travel costs" is a more良性 and healthy development trend, as more travelers can spend real money on genuine cultural tourism experiences. A more flexible vacation system reduces travel costs, optimizes the travel experience, and stimulates more cultural tourism consumption.

During the long holiday, cultural tourism consumption voucher activities across various regions added fuel to the already hot holiday travel, driving local and cross-provincial consumption in relevant areas. Before the National Day holiday, Tongcheng Travel successively connected cultural tourism consumption voucher activities from more than ten destinations including Guangdong Province and Suzhou city, with cumulative connected amounts exceeding 60 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 325 percent. Compared with previous years, the distribution of cultural tourism consumption vouchers in various places this National Day holiday showed significantly improved refinement in target customer selection and category structure. Sichuan Province, targeting the concentration of family groups during the golden week, launched cultural tourism and sports consumption vouchers for the elderly and children, issued alongside general-purpose vouchers, effectively driving family travel consumption. In addition, targeting the high proportion of long-haul overnight tourists during the long holiday, voucher distribution in multiple cities increased the placement of accommodation vouchers, boosting hotel booking popularity.

Small-Town Scenic Spots Become the Holiday's Top Draw

Small-town travel and "county-bound travel" became new growth points for holiday tourism consumption. Tuniu stated that during the long holiday, the tourism consumption potential of users in third-tier and lower cities accelerated, with the proportion of travel person-times steadily growing. Hegang, Suqian, Shangluo, Laibin, Wuwei, Yiyang, Dehong, Binzhou, Luoyang, Yangjiang and other source markets saw their travel person-times rank among the top in year-on-year growth. The warming of county-level tourism drove accommodation consumption. Tongcheng Travel platform showed that during the holiday, Lingchuan County, Xiuwu County, Taibai County, Qilian County, Liuba County, Daocheng County, Deqin County, Huguan County, Daxin County, Luding County and other county-level destinations saw their hotel and travel product booking popularity rank among the top county-level destinations nationwide. Among them, Lingchuan County's hotel and travel booking popularity grew more than 230 percent year-on-year, Xiuwu County more than 200 percent, Taibai County more than 130 percent, and Qilian County more than 100 percent. Qunar data showed that during the double festivals, county hotel booking popularity grew 35 percent year-on-year, with platform users staying in hotels across more than a thousand counties nationwide. Tujia homestay data showed that during the holiday, Yili, Qianxinan, Diqing and a batch of treasure small towns suitable for autumn viewing and slow travel saw orders grow more than twenty percent year-on-year. Some tourists chose "request 3 days off, rest 13 days" to further extend their travel cycle, with extended-leave tourists' orders for stays of three days or more growing fifty percent year-on-year. Hotels under Wanda Hotels and Resorts welcomed a peak in visitor flow, receiving about 350,000 people from October 1 to 5, a year-on-year increase of 23 percent, with county-level travel blooming in multiple spots and overall operating performance outstanding. Qunar stated that during the double festivals, the national TOP 10 popular scenic spots were swept by small towns, namely: Jiangxi Shangrao Gexian Village, Jiangxi Shangrao Wuyuan Huangling, Hebei Tangshan Hetou Old Street, Sichuan Aba Jiuzhaigou, Ningxia Zhongwei Shapotou, Henan Kaifeng Wansuishan Martial Arts City, Jiangxi Shangrao Sanqingshan, Jiangsu Suzhou Humble Administrator's Garden, Shandong Linyi Langya Ancient City, and Anhui Huangshan. "In the past, travel was more about where to go; now more tourists set off for a story. More and more content-driven scenic spots, relying on the new business format of 'experience plus,' are becoming cultural tourism rising stars," analyzed Yang Han, a researcher at Qunar's big data research institute.

Small-town tourism also attracted a large number of inbound tourists. Ctrip stated that among inbound tourism orders during the long holiday, the proportion of European source markets rose to over 20 percent, achieving a double-digit increase compared to last year. Many foreign tourists headed to small towns and border areas. During the long holiday, Zhangjiajie's inbound orders grew about 1.5 times, the only fifth-tier city in the inbound destination TOP 10, with inbound ticket order volume ranking third nationwide. The proportion of inbound orders in fifth-tier cities rose to over 8 percent. Heihe's inbound orders grew about 1.3 times, with over ninety percent from Russia. Yanbian grew nearly 3 times. The Chinese landscapes that match foreign tourists' imaginations and the convenience of border ports directly connected these cities to international visitor flows.

Outbound Tourism Booms, AI Applications Gradually Mature

During the double festivals, for outbound tourism, short-haul Southeast Asian tours and long-haul in-depth European tours were the more popular choices for tourists. Data from Tuniu, Tongcheng Travel and others showed that South Korea, Indonesia, Maldives, Italy, France, Switzerland, Turkey, Thailand, Germany, Malaysia and other destinations led in popularity. Single-country in-depth tours were also favored by young consumers, with Turkey, New Zealand, Australia, Morocco, Italy and others being relatively popular in-depth tour destinations. During this long holiday, AI became a good helper for everyone's travel. Fliggy data showed that during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday period, the interaction volume of Fliggy Bangbang increased 158 percent month-on-month, and the flight and hotel bookings it guided grew 110 percent month-on-month. At the same time, AI's capabilities in pre-trip, during-trip and post-trip tasks became increasingly prominent. During the long holiday, from user interaction data on check-in and refund/change, Beijing, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Suzhou, Nanjing and others were popular destination cities in Fliggy Bangbang interactions. In the first four days of the National Day long holiday, Yuanbao users' queries for travel-related information on Tongcheng Travel's intelligent agent DeepTrip grew more than 50 percent compared to ordinary days, while DeepTrip's overall visits during the long holiday doubled. The industry believes that starting October 8, airfare and hotel prices across various places will "plummet," ushering in a wave of off-peak travel.