During the 2026 Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays, which fell close together and created an extended travel window, demand for cross-regional and long-distance trips was further unleashed. Hotels under Wanda Hotels & Resorts welcomed a surge in visitors, receiving a total of 400,000 room guests from October 1 to 7, up 13.6% year on year.
At the Dunhuang Gamm Wanda Vista Hotel, a sunset concert reflected the broader trend. From pre-holiday off-peak departures to multi-destination itineraries; from the rising popularity of long-haul destinations such as the Northwest Silk Road and Central Plains culture to the continued vitality of county-level and lower-tier markets, this year's Mid-Autumn and National Day holiday travel consumption showed characteristics of longer travel cycles, more diverse destinations and deeper experience needs. In response to market changes, Wanda Hotels & Resorts has continued to strengthen the connection between hotels and destinations through differentiated destination operations, local cultural experiences and diverse scenario creation.
Longer travel cycles make multi-destination itineraries a new holiday trend
The longer holiday window first changed the rhythm of tourist travel. From September 28 to 30 before the holiday, some travelers started their trips early, with average daily occupancy rates rising compared with the same period last year, further highlighting the off-peak travel trend. At the same time, the extra-long holiday did not simply translate into longer stays in a single destination. More and more tourists chose to use the holiday for cross-city, multi-destination itineraries, covering more cities and destinations in one journey, further releasing long-distance travel demand.
This trend also led urban hotels to place greater emphasis on combining destination resources with accommodation experiences. Relying on the core commercial district and urban cultural tourism resources such as Confucius Temple and the Presidential Palace, Nanjing Xinjiekou Wanda Meihua Hotel was fully booked for six consecutive days during the National Day Golden Week, with GOP up more than 15% year on year and both ADR and RevPAR up more than 21%. The hotel added intangible cultural heritage handicraft experiences, children's amenities and Nanjing specialty cuisine for family guests, while using online livestreaming to capture holiday traffic in a timely manner.
Chongzuo Taiping Ancient City Wanda Jinhua Resort Hotel formed a linkage with the ancient city's festival activities and was fully booked for 12 consecutive days. Under the theme "Full Moon over Taiping, Family and Country Reunion," the hotel integrated local cultural content such as intangible cultural heritage iron-flower fireworks, drone light shows, Tianqin and Lusheng performances and bamboo pole dances into guest experiences, and further enriched the ancient city resort experience through detail services such as feeding packages, suanye, sweet soup and afternoon tea.
Jingzhou Fuli Wanda Jiahua Hotel relied on cultural tourism traffic from Jingzhou Ancient City and focused on family, parent-child and wedding banquet markets, with RevPAR up 17% year on year, a new high in nearly two years. Wuhan Wanda Ruihua Hotel launched a "National Day Autumn Appreciation Tour" series of activities, using intangible cultural heritage handicraft classes and holiday interactions to create more holiday consumption scenarios beyond accommodation for urban hotels.
Northwest Silk Road and Central Plains culture gain momentum as distinctive destinations stand out
The release of long-distance travel demand also further boosted hotel markets in distinctive destinations. During this year's National Day period, occupancy rates in regions such as Xinjiang, Qinghai, Henan and Shaanxi performed prominently, with multiple hotels in destinations including Kashgar, Urumqi, Korla, Xining, Luoyang, Xi'an and Yan'an reaching full occupancy. Among them, the Northwest Silk Road became an important growth region for long-distance tourism. Overall occupancy in Xinjiang exceeded 80%, with multiple hotels in Kashgar fully booked; multiple hotels in Xining, Qinghai, were close to saturation. At the same time, historical, cultural and red tourism destinations represented by Luoyang, Xi'an and Yan'an also maintained high popularity.
The rise in destination popularity also gave hotels greater room for "local operations." Luoyang Wanda Jinhua Hotel · Longmen Inn was fully booked for five consecutive days during the National Day holiday, with outstanding ADR performance from October 1 to 3. The hotel linked with local cultural tourism resources such as Longmen Grottoes and integrated ticket packages, Republic-era qipao travel photography, special station transfers and parent-child themed rooms into the stay experience, making the hotel part of tourists' exploration of the destination.
Yan'an Wanda Hotel Group relied on Red Street commercial street and local red tourism resources, and hosted family guests by optimizing family room types, increasing connected-room sales, and enriching local agricultural products and parent-child activities. Room revenue rose 15% year on year during the National Day period.
Urumqi Fuli Wanda Vista Hotel further strengthened its Western Regions-style hospitality experience, arranging special welcome dances and hot towel service for tour groups, setting up Western Regions-themed DIY experiences, and integrating ethnic dances and Sichuan opera face-changing performances into dining scenes, extending regional culture from the hotel's surroundings into the guest experience.
Dunhuang Gamm Wanda Vista Hotel showed strong appeal as a high-end resort product during the National Day period. Centering on Dunhuang's unique cultural and natural resources, the hotel launched distinctive activities such as the "Silk Road Talk" cultural salon, sunset concerts and Dunhuang handmade experiences, combining Silk Road culture and artistic experiences with resort scenarios, further extending the hotel from an accommodation space into a carrier for perceiving destination culture and enriching vacation experiences.
Overall, destinations with distinctive cultural features, rich experiences and resort attributes performed more prominently, while consumers paid greater attention to destination culture, experience value and travel quality.
Cultural tourism experiences deepen as hotel scenarios continue to expand
In addition to long-distance tourism destinations, county-level and lower-tier markets also showed strong vitality during this year's Mid-Autumn and National Day holidays. Hotels in places such as Zunhua, Longhua and Dingzhou in Hebei; Pingyao in Shanxi; Ankang in Shaanxi; Xingyi in Guizhou; Wanyuan in Sichuan; and Jingshan in Hubei performed prominently, with multiple newly opened properties quickly achieving high occupancy and some fully booked for consecutive days. At the same time, newly opened hotels in destinations such as Chongzuo, Bengbu, Kashgar and Urumqi also performed strongly, indicating that hotel consumption is extending further to more regions and distinctive destinations.
In terms of overall performance, from October 1 to 7, more than 200 hotels under Wanda Hotels & Resorts achieved full occupancy, accounting for about 65% of the total number of hotels; among them, more than 160 hotels were fully booked for consecutive days, accounting for about half of the total. The strong performance of new stores and hotels in distinctive destinations also became an important incremental driver in this year's holiday market.
On this basis, hotels are further extending from a single accommodation space to a destination experience space. Quanzhou Wanda Vista Hotel integrated Minnan culture into holiday services, launching experiences around Quanzhou's intangible cultural heritage and folk culture such as Xunpu zanhua headwear, Hui'an women's costume embroidery, electronic Third Prince and green lion dance, while also offering parent-child content such as children's cooking, fuse beads and children's playgrounds, allowing guests of different ages to participate.
Hotel experience innovation also extended to suburban resort scenarios in cities. Total revenue at Yixing Xi'an Huangchuan Hotel rose nearly 30% year on year from October 1 to 5, with room revenue up 37%, food and beverage revenue up 11% and other revenue up 200%. Through villa split sales, themed buffet dinners and autumn-winter afternoon tea, combined with activities such as mountain biking, kayaking, lakeside camping, singing bowls and fishing, the hotel further integrated accommodation, dining and leisure experiences.
Beijing Dongba Wanda Hotel Group took "Chinese-style elegant gathering" as its theme, bringing traditional cultural experiences such as sugar figurine blowing, dough figurine making, sachet sewing and grain patchwork into hotel scenarios. Related content received more than 30,000 views and more than 2,000 interactions on social platforms. Changchun Fuli Wanda Vista Hotel and Nanchang Fuli Wanda Jiahua Hotel also continued to enrich holiday accommodation scenarios through activities such as Northeast folk interactions, tai chi classes, pipa performances and parent-child games.
In cultural, commercial and tourism resort projects, diversified holiday activities further enriched destination experiences. Changbaishan Wanda International Resort and Wanfeng Tonghua Ski Resort launched activities such as youth obstacle races, hiking challenges and fun pet events around mountain and outdoor scenarios, integrating sports, parent-child and pet-friendly experiences into resort scenarios. Changchun Wanda Ski Resort continued its ski-themed popularity through online UGC interactions and offline fun games. Danzhai Wanda Town connected rich resort content with intangible cultural heritage activities, Chinese-style night parades, specialty food and hot spring experiences, allowing visitors to deeply experience destination features through participation and interaction.
Judging from the market performance during this year's Mid-Autumn and National Day holidays, the relationship between hotels and destinations is changing. Tourists no longer regard hotels merely as accommodation nodes during travel, but pay more attention to whether hotels can provide destination experiences, parent-child interactions, cultural content and leisure methods. For hotel groups, this also means that operational capabilities need to extend further from traditional accommodation scenarios to destination resource integration and experience design. From "staying one night" to "staying longer," and from "a quick visit" to "immersive experience," holiday tourism consumption is pushing hotels to redefine their relationship with destinations. Wanda Hotels & Resorts is also integrating brand, product and operational capabilities into more travel and living scenarios through practices in different cities and destinations, providing more practical samples for the hotel industry in responding to consumption changes.
About Wanda Hotels & Resorts
Wanda Hotels & Resorts was founded in 2007 and is a full-industry-chain hotel management company under Hong Kong-listed Tongcheng Travel (stock code: 0780.HK) that integrates hotel design, construction, operation and management. The company adheres to the core values of "people first, caring for every employee, warming every guest and being responsible to every partner," upholds the corporate philosophy of "pragmatic innovation, promoting Chinese culture," and is committed to becoming an asset management company centered on hotels with sustained value creation capabilities. Wanda Hotels & Resorts owns hotel brands including the luxury Wanda Ruihua Hotel, the deluxe Wanda Vista Hotel, the upper-upscale Wanda Jiahua Hotel, the upscale Wanda Jinhua Hotel, the upscale lifestyle Wanda Yihua Hotel, the upper-midscale lifestyle Wanda Meihua Hotel and Wanda Yuehua Hotel. As of August 2026, Wanda Hotels & Resorts had more than 300 opened hotels and more than 500 hotels under construction or awaiting opening, covering more than 400 cities worldwide. At the same time, with hotel business at its core, Wanda Hotels & Resorts integrates high-quality resources across the cultural, commercial and tourism industry chain, providing integrated services in areas such as ice and snow projects, four-season resorts, hotel-driven commercial complexes, non-standard commercial projects, cultural tourism scenic areas, urban renewal, cultural innovation and new-type city construction, creating multi-dimensional benchmark product lines for culture, business and tourism.
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