The 8-day "super golden week" combining National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holidays has officially concluded this year. Trip.com Group Limited released the "Trip.com 2025 National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival Tourism Report," showing Beijing, Chengdu, Shanghai, Xi'an, Chongqing, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Qingdao, Nanjing, and Hangzhou ranked as the top 10 popular destinations. Shandong's overall tourism order volume increased 10% year-over-year, higher than the national average. Among individual cities, Qingdao grew 18%, Rizhao increased 23%, and Tai'an led nationwide prefecture-level cities with a remarkable 72% growth.

**Tai'an Tops Nation with 72% Growth Rate**

"Climbing Mount Tai makes all other mountains seem small" once again demonstrates its powerful appeal. The Trip.com 2025 National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival Tourism Report shows Tai'an's overall order volume grew 72% year-over-year, ranking first among national prefecture-level cities. The five major source cities - Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Nanjing, and Hangzhou - contributed over 60% of visitor traffic.

High-speed rail benefits served as the primary driver - during the holiday period, passenger volume at Tai'an Station on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway ranked among the province's top stations. "High-speed rail + ticket" combination orders on the Trip.com platform accounted for 55%, up 12 percentage points year-over-year.

Experience upgrades provided the second boost: Mount Tai scenic area launched "Midnight Departure · Sunrise Viewing" special sessions, with night climbing orders accounting for 38% of total Mount Tai sales. The immersive performance "Eastern Sacred Mountain Temple Ceremony" at Dai Temple was fully booked, extending Tai'an's average stay duration from 1.1 nights to 1.6 nights.

Trip.com Research Institute predicts that with the completion of the Jinan-Tai'an Eastern Expressway in 2026, Tai'an will form a "Mountains and Waters - Spring City" dual-core corridor with Jinan, potentially sustaining the 72% high growth rate.

**Jinan Hotel Orders Show Double-Digit Growth**

Jinan, known as "a city of mountains and half a city of lakes," saw hotel order volume increase 10% year-over-year during this holiday, matching the provincial average but with better structure: five-star hotels grew 18%, 6 percentage points higher than lower-tier hotels.

Source markets highly overlapped with Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail routes - Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Shijiazhuang, and Hangzhou accounted for 59%, with average booking lead time of 17 days, favoring "springs + old streets" 2-day, 1-night micro-vacations.

Combined tickets for Baotu Spring, Daming Lake, and Mingshui Ancient City sold 46% more year-over-year, with the evening "Daming Lake Show" seeing 200% increase in search popularity compared to pre-holiday levels, becoming a traffic magnet for spring city night tourism.

Notably, Jinan maintained double-digit hotel growth for consecutive holidays during Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival, indicating that "spring water culture" has developed repeat visitor appeal.

**Qingdao and Rizhao Jointly Capture "Northern Coastal Living"**

During this holiday, Qingdao's overall order volume grew 18% year-over-year, ranking first among northern coastal cities. Rizhao followed closely with 23% growth. The two cities combined accounted for 34% of Shandong's total holiday orders, showing that "Shandong Coast" has become a brand.

Qingdao's visitor sources were highly concentrated in the Yangtze River Delta and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei regions - Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing, and Tianjin contributed 61% of traffic. Signal Hill, Governor's Mansion, Underwater World, Wildlife World, and Zhanshan Temple remained the top five popular attractions.

Rizhao's core source markets were Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, Suzhou, and Hangzhou. Wanpingkou, Tiantai Mountain, and Ocean Park showed strong family appeal, with average stay duration of 2.1 nights, higher than Qingdao's 1.8 nights.

On the product side, Trip.com launched "Qingdao-Rizhao high-speed rail pass + sailing experience" joint products, with holiday sales exceeding 12,000 packages, driving the "dual-city tour" proportion on the Jiaodong Peninsula to 27%.

Trip.com predicts that with the Qingdao-Rizhao high-speed rail reducing travel time to 50 minutes by end of 2025, the two cities are expected to jointly build "China's most beautiful northern coastal vacation corridor," with combined holiday orders potentially growing over 20% in 2026.

**Off-Peak + Night Tourism: Post-Holiday Orders Up 40%, Night Mount Tai Searches Double**

"Segmented travel" was fully implemented in Shandong this year. The Trip.com 2025 National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival Tourism Report shows that on October 9-10, flight prices in multiple destinations dropped over 50% compared to holiday peaks, driving Shandong's post-holiday first weekend hotel orders up 40% year-over-year, with Qingdao and Jinan high-star hotels seeing 25% increase in 2+ night stays.

For night tourism, "Night Mount Tai" keyword searches increased 200% during the holiday period. "Spring City Night Banquet · Daming Lake Show" and "Qingdao Olympic Sailing Center Drone Light Show" ranked second and third respectively for provincial night tourism popularity.

Regional airports in Zibo, Weifang, and Yantai saw return flight prices "dive" on the last holiday day, attracting many young tourists with sufficient annual leave to travel to Shandong in reverse, creating smoother overall visitor flow curves across the province.

The triple incentives of "culture + nightscape + price differential" made Shandong one of the provinces with the most obvious post-holiday off-peak benefits.

Trip.com Research Institute believes that as "paying for experiences" becomes mainstream, Shandong, with its advantages of comprehensive high-speed rail network, diverse products, and high price elasticity, has mature conditions to transform "holiday peaks" into "year-round vitality."

**Inbound Tourism Rapidly Warming, South Korea Becomes Top Source Market**

Shandong's "international circle of friends" significantly expanded during the super golden week. The Trip.com 2025 National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival Tourism Report shows Shandong's inbound tourism orders doubled year-over-year, with Qingdao, Tai'an, and Jinan contributing over 80% of the share.

Additionally, Qingdao Cruise Home Port welcomed 3 international cruise ships during the Mid-Autumn Festival for the first time, carrying nearly 6,000 foreign tourists, with about 40% choosing to extend their visits to Qufu and Tai'an after disembarking, forming the classic "Sea-Mountain-Sage" route.

With visa-free policies and direct flight resumptions, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, the United States, and Russia ranked as the top five source markets, with South Korea alone accounting for 35%, becoming the "lead train" for Shandong inbound tourism.

Inbound tourists stayed an average of 3.2 nights, 0.8 nights longer than domestic tourists, showing stronger spending power. Mount Tai, the Three Confucian Sites, Qingdao Beer Museum, Spring City Night Banquet Daming Lake Show, and Rizhao Ocean Park were popular check-in destinations.

With the intensification of the Qingdao-Busan-Osaka cruise route in 2026 and continued recovery of international routes in Jinan and Qingdao, Shandong's inbound tourism orders are expected to grow another 50% next year, becoming a new growth pole for "Hospitable Shandong."

A senior researcher at Trip.com Research Institute stated that from Tai'an's 72% national growth championship to the coastal twin stars of Qingdao and Rizhao, from spring city night tourism's high repeat visits to stable post-holiday off-peak reception, Shandong delivered a high-quality "mountain green, sea blue" report card for the 2025 super golden week. Shandong writes cultural depth into its landscapes and leaves emotional value for tourists.