As the 2026 Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays draw near, a clever leave-stacking strategy known as "take 3, rest 13" has gone viral, unlocking what is being hailed as the longest concentrated travel window in nearly a decade. With only three working days separating the two festivals, travelers are seizing the opportunity to create an extended break.
Data released recently by Tongcheng Travel and Qunar Travel shows that search interest in keywords like "Mid-Autumn Festival" and "National Day" has surged, with booking momentum for flights, hotels, car rentals, and vacation packages climbing across the board. This extended golden week has directly fueled growth in long-haul and immersive travel, with long-distance flight bookings rising significantly and county-level travel products also seeing a notable uptick in demand. However, the boom has also prompted industry insiders to warn about the risk of "overdrawing" travel demand, urging platforms and destinations to work together on enhancing products, services, content, and supporting infrastructure.
Long-Haul Domestic Travel Hits a High Point
"Finally got the tickets!" a Beijing resident surnamed Jiang told reporters happily. She plans to take her family to the Lesser Khingan Mountains this National Day holiday to "chase the autumn foliage." Train tickets for the day before the holiday, September 30, went on sale on September 16, kickstarting a peak period for flight and hotel reservations.
According to Qunar Travel data as of September 16, search volumes for terms like "Mid-Autumn" and "National Day" on its platform have jumped 167% month-over-month, while weekly bookings for National Day flights and hotels have risen 56% compared to the previous week. Tongcheng Travel's "2026 Mid-Autumn and National Day Travel Trends Forecast Report" indicates that due to a "shifted" portion of summer travel demand, bookings for this golden week are ramping up faster than in previous years. As of September 14, search heat for related keywords on Tongcheng's platform had grown 278% month-over-month, with domestic flight bookings to popular cities rising over 40% year-on-year.
The driving force behind this surge is, of course, the ability to "stitch together" an extended holiday. Under the official holiday schedule, there are only three working days between the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day. By taking those three days off, travelers can extend their break to its maximum. Some netizens have already acted on this, securing 13 consecutive days of leave. Others have shared on social media that their companies have issued notices granting employees leave from September 28 to 30 in addition to the regular three-day Mid-Autumn and seven-day National Day holidays, resulting in a full 13 days off.
Autumn school breaks and flexible academic calendars in some cities have also allowed students to seamlessly enjoy extended time off. In Hangzhou, for example, several districts have scheduled the autumn break from September 28 to 30, giving students up to 13 consecutive days of holiday. Universities such as Beijing Jiaotong University, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Hebei University of Technology, and Heilongjiang University have also announced 13-day breaks.
This ample holiday time has significantly broadened travel radius. Tongcheng Travel data shows that as of September 14, bookings for domestic long-haul flights over 1,200 kilometers departing during the Mid-Autumn and National Day period have increased 34% year-on-year, while orders for hotel stays of five or more nights have risen by about 7 percentage points compared to the same period last year. Qunar Travel data indicates that as of September 16, bookings for popular routes over 2,000 kilometers have doubled year-on-year. Searches for flights from Hangzhou to long-haul western cities have surged over 10-fold week-over-week, including searches for routes like Hangzhou to Karamay and Golmud in Xinjiang, which grew by more than 10 times, and flights to Wuhai and Xilinhot in Inner Mongolia, which saw search growth exceeding 5 times.
Since long-haul travel often involves more tiring journeys, "staying better" has become a consensus among many travelers. A Tongcheng Travel representative told reporters that as of September 14, bookings for high-quality hotels during the Mid-Autumn and National Day period accounted for a notable share, up nearly 10 percentage points year-on-year. In terms of user search keywords, hotels and room types labeled with features like "panoramic terrace," "hot spring private bath," and "facing snowy mountains" are proving most popular, especially high-quality properties near major scenic spots.
Immersive Travel Accelerates
The extended holiday hasn't just pushed travel distances farther; it has also fostered deeper, more immersive travel styles. In the 2026 booking wave, a number of lesser-known county-level destinations have continued to attract high interest. According to Qunar Travel, search volumes for its "hidden gem towns" products have grown over 60% month-over-month since September, with hotel bookings now covering more than a thousand counties. Tongcheng Travel data shows that as of September 14, bookings for county-level travel products during the Mid-Autumn and National Day period had risen 42% year-on-year, with visitors staying longer—average trip durations have extended by 3.2 days compared to last year, reflecting a noticeably slower and more relaxed pace.
In terms of destination popularity, Pingtan, Chun'an, Baoting, Zhongmu, Pingyao, Xianju, Anji, Antu, Jianshui, and Dehua have all made it into the top 10 list for "county-level immersive travel" during this golden week. Booking heat for related travel products has surged significantly, placing these destinations among the leaders nationwide. The Tongcheng Research Institute attributes the 2026 golden week's performance to three key trends: extended duration, expanded geographic scope, and deepened experiential quality. The combination of leave-stacking strategies and autumn break policies has not only eased travel congestion but also unlocked significant potential for mid-to-long-distance travel spending.
Yet, 13-day holidays are far from the norm. Once the holiday calendar returns to its usual rhythm, how can travel platforms and destinations sustain the momentum of long-haul and immersive travel? Zhou Haitao, founder of Wenlv, believes that maintaining this momentum hinges on two factors: product quality and service standards. He told reporters that travel platforms could focus on both fronts by offering premium group tours and customized itineraries to turn one-time transactions into repeat business. Enhancing AI-powered itinerary reminders and real-time trip support can also make travelers' journeys more effortless. Destinations, meanwhile, need to enrich their content offerings and supporting infrastructure, deepening the visitor experience to encourage longer stays—far beyond a quick photo stop. By optimizing sightseeing routes and paying attention to fine details, destinations can convert fleeting traffic into lasting goodwill.
For county-level tourism specifically, Zhou stressed the need to address three weaknesses: service awareness, accommodation, and transportation—with service awareness being the most critical. "Improving service awareness depends on people, mechanisms, and long-term investment. Because it's the hardest to fix, it should be tackled first. Accommodation and transportation are the baseline; quantity alone isn't enough—quality and service must follow. At the end of the day, county-level cultural tourism has shifted from a marketing battle to an operations battle."
Interviews with OTA platforms confirmed that efforts are indeed being made in these areas. For instance, Qunar Travel is set to launch a filtering feature for one-day tour package deals to help merchants manage operations more finely and enhance the traveler experience. During the run-up to this year's extended holiday, bookings that began with Qunar's AI trip planning assistant—generating rough itineraries before transferring to human agents for fully customized plans—have risen by 20%.
Nevertheless, amid the booming holiday market, a concern has emerged: could demand be overdrawn in advance? "What gets overdrawn isn't demand—it's low-quality supply," Zhou said. "Those internet-famous niche destinations that rely purely on short-video hype but lack real reception capacity will lose visitors after a single trip. The market will weed them out naturally. In essence, the holiday bonus is an amplifier—it magnifies both good and bad offerings."