Spring break long holiday sparks a Qingming travel wave; cultural and tourism consumption moves toward quality

Securities Times reporter Tang Ying

As spring vacation policies have officially taken effect across multiple regions, the tourism and culture consumption market for the Qingming Festival holiday in 2026 has seen a surge in travel demand. Data released by the Ministry of Transport on April 6 shows that during the three-day Qingming holiday from April 4 to 6, the total cross-regional movement of people across the whole society reached 845.38M person-trips, with an average of 281.79M person-trips per day, up 6% year over year over the same period last year.

This year, across the country, many regions have formulated spring vacation plans for students in primary and secondary schools. In Sichuan, Jiangsu, and other places, spring vacation began on April 1, running consecutively with the Qingming Festival holiday. The original three-day break has been extended into a six-day long holiday, so children with spring vacation can enjoy an “extended version of vacation.” This breaks the former limitation that the Qingming Festival holiday was only suitable for short trips, and the tourism market has ushered in the first major travel peak after this year’s Spring Festival.

The implementation of spring vacation has given rise to a large-scale group taking consecutive days off to travel. On April 6, Fliggy released the “2026 Qingming Holiday Travel Express Brief,” showing that during the Qingming holiday, tourism consumption demand was strong. The volume of tourism service bookings continued to rise on top of last year’s base, with domestic hotel bookings up by about 40%. “Post-90s” and “Post-85s” parent-child families have become the main force for travel, driving demand for higher-quality tourism services. The average ticket price for tourism services has risen somewhat compared with last year.

Many destinations have also rolled out benefits such as free admission to scenic areas and free transportation, helping children have a fun and comfortable time. For example, Nanjing and Suzhou launched activities offering free transit with a student ID. Scenic areas such as Mount Huangshan, Nanjing’s Great Bao’en Temple, the Wolong Chinese Giant Panda Garden, and Qingcheng Mountain have successively released ticket discount and exemption offers for primary and secondary school students. This series of measures has led to a noticeable increase in tourism bookings for the relevant destinations compared with previous years. Taking Jiangsu as an example, the province’s tourism booking volume grew by nearly 40% year over year; cities such as Suqian, Nantong, Yancheng, and Xuzhou recorded year-over-year growth rates of more than 50% in tourism bookings.

Meanwhile, in-depth study-and-experience trips are becoming a choice for more families. Tuniu released the “2026 Qingming Travel Consumption Roundup,” showing that during the spring vacation period, the number of parent-child trip departures increased by more than 2 times year over year. Natural experiences, study programs, and theme parks have become the top picks for parent-child families.

With ample time off, long-distance trips are becoming the norm. Platform data shows that booking demand for flights on routes of more than 800 kilometers rose by 80% month over month. Remote destinations that were previously constrained by holiday limits—such as Dali, Tengchong, and Xishuangbanna—have seen higher levels of heat.

In terms of travel mode, self-driving trips and independent travel have become the mainstream. Platform data shows that among travelers with consecutive days off, the shares of trip departures were 40% for self-driving and 37% for independent travel. The car rental market has seen a surge: inquiries increased by 170% year over year, long-rental orders for more than 3 days grew by more than 65% year over year, and SUV models are especially favored for their fit with family travel needs.

It is worth noting that, affected by the overlap between the Qingming holiday and the overseas Easter holiday, cross-border two-way travel has become a prominent feature, forming multiple consumption hotspots: Hong Kong residents traveling north, mainland residents traveling to Hong Kong, and international inbound tourism. Ctrip data shows that the booking heat for flights from Hong Kong to the mainland surged by nearly 4 times year over year, and hotel booking heat increased by 8 times year over year. The consumption focus has shifted from shopping to cultural exploration and in-depth experiences, with long-distance travel hot picks including Shanghai, Beijing, and Sanya. At the same time, travel heat for mainland residents going to Hong Kong has risen in parallel: booking heat for high-quality hotels grew by nearly 30% year over year, and cultural landmarks such as the Palace Museum in Hong Kong and the Palace Museum Cultural Center have become new check-in destinations.

In addition, the scale of international inbound tourism has grown significantly. Ctrip data shows that during the Qingming holiday, the total number of inbound-tourism-related orders grew by more than 70% year over year. Young groups in countries and regions such as Thailand, Singapore, and Europe and the U.S. have become the main force. For these young travelers, aesthetic experiences such as learning Jiangnan gardens, studying Chinese kung fu or calligraphy, and studying Chinese tea culture and tea-making craftsmanship are popular choices—driving inbound tourism to upgrade from “scenery consumption” to “cultural consumption.”

(Editor: Zhang Xiaobo)

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