BEIJING: China’s tourism and consumption sectors saw robust vitality during the five-day May Day holidays — from stadiums in Suzhou, East China’s Jiangsu Province, erupting with thunderous cheers and fans singing along in unison, to tranquil county towns like Pingtan in East China’s Fujian Province, where urban families wandered along the coast, enjoyed night-market delicacies in fully booked boutique guesthouses and Shanghai’s bustling bathhouses where foreign tourists soaked in steaming herbal pools and marveled at traditional massages.
The vibrant mix of cultural immersion and sporting passion during the holidays has highlighted the robust momentum of China’s ongoing consumption upgrade, as well as the massive untapped potential, analysts said.
The vibrant consumer market, while painting a vivid picture of the dynamics of China’s domestic demand, isset to inject fresh impetus into the economy, they said.
According to China’s Ministry of Transport, cross-regional trips over the May Day holidays period ended on Tuesday are forecasted to hit 1.525 billion, marking a record high for passenger movements across the country during the same period. The daily average trips stood at 30.5 million, up 4 percent year-on-year.
Data from various travel platforms showed that during this year’s May Day holidays, tourism has seen an upward trend in both supply and demand as many regions have aligned newly-introduced spring break with the May Day holidays, allowing longer trips and greater spending.
The extended holidays have encouraged more in-depth travel, with bookings for “treasure small-city chain tours” — involving stays in two or more cities — surging 121 percent year-on-year, according to a report sent by online travel agency qunar.com to the Global Times on Tuesday.
Also thanks to the extended holidays, hotel bookings for popular destinations on travel platform Tongcheng Travel surged more than 40 percent year-on-year, the Global Times learned.
China’s May Day holiday travel surge has drawn the limelight of multiple media outlets. A report by the Travel and Tour World titled “May Day 2026 Holidays mark record-breaking domestic travel and new consumption model reshaping the future of travel” said that China’s travel sector in 2026 witnessed “unprecedented momentum” during the holidays, signaling strong recovery and evolution in domestic tourism patterns. –The Daily Mail-Global Times news exchange item
