The moon is full during the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the family and the country celebrate together.
On September 22, the 2026 National Day Cultural and Tourism Consumption Month home event was officially launched in Mile City, Honghe Prefecture, Yunnan Province, kicking off a cultural and tourism feast covering the north and south of the country.
With more than 20,000 cultural tourism activities and over 310 million yuan in consumer vouchers, various regions have increased high-quality supply around popular needs such as mountain and river tours, Mid-Autumn Festival reunions, autumn appreciation leisure, red tourism, study tours, night-time economy, and intangible cultural heritage delicacies, providing residents and tourists with richer choices and more comfortable experiences when traveling during the holidays. From cities to villages, from mountains and rivers to streets, the heat of consumption and rising popularity are surging everywhere. This is a vivid picture of the flow of China and a sonorous piece of economic pulsation.
Vitality is seen in the flow, and the universe is hidden in the smoke. This year, the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day are less than a week apart. During the Double Festival, flight and wine bookings increased by 119% compared to last week, and searches for moon-viewing flights tripled year-on-year. Some people run to the mountains and seas, some return to their hometowns; some people "run to the county" to find the quiet world, and some "run to the moon" to pursue the light. Bookings for popular routes of more than 2,000 kilometers doubled year-on-year, and bookings for ultra-long itineraries of more than 10 days accounted for 26%. The flow of people is logistics, and the flow of passengers is financial flow. The "hotness" of holiday cultural tourism stems from mobile vitality and the eager yearning of hundreds of millions of people for a better life. The rolling traffic on the main transportation lines, the hustle and bustle in the streets and alleys of scenic spots, and the laughter and laughter in restaurants and tea shops. These simple scenes are exactly the true footnotes of the resilience and vitality of China's economy.
The new business format adds momentum, and the experience is upgraded to open up new realms. Today’s cultural and tourism consumption has long surpassed the extensive model of “getting on the bus to sleep and getting off the bus to take pictures”. Young people have turned their vacations into "slow-charge" journeys, reducing the density of their itineraries and leaving time for things they really want to experience. You can put up a lantern with your own hands in the intangible cultural heritage market, experience a legend in the immersive theater, and have a dialogue with cultural relics spanning thousands of years in the museum. Cultural experience is becoming an indispensable background during the journey. Jinan, Shandong Province launched the "2026 Golden Autumn Cultural Tourism Carnival", with more than 300 activities under seven major themes to light up the double holiday. The four major parks of the First Spring in the World jointly held garden parties, and the old courtyard was implanted with diverse business formats such as specialty bookstores, new Chinese tea drinks, and local cultural and creative industries, allowing tourists walking in the streets beside the spring to enjoy the new charm of the old city. From "where to play" to "how to play", from seeing the scenery to tasting the culture, the direction of consumption upgrade is clear and firm.
Use culture to shape travel to deepen integration, and use travel to highlight culture and nourish people's hearts. The deep integration of culture and tourism is not simply "cultural stage and economic drama", but the integration of elements, the improvement of value, and the expansion of functions. During this year’s Consumption Month, various regions will dig deep into the cultural connotations of traditional festivals and launch various activities such as intangible cultural heritage markets and folk experiences to enrich people’s cultural life and stimulate holiday consumption. The cultural experience does not stop with the sunset, but extends from the market fireworks during the day to the stage lights and shadows at night. Stage plays, classic Kun opera, and traditional instrumental music performances are staged in turn, and high-quality intangible cultural heritage performances continue to boost nighttime cultural tourism consumption. Culture gives tourism a soul, and tourism gives culture a carrier. When tourists understand a city in a performance and touch a piece of history in a cultural creation, consumption is no longer a cold transaction, but an emotional connection with warmth. This is exactly the proposition of the times that “culture shapes tourism and tourism promotes culture”, and it is also a vivid practice of humanistic economics in the field of cultural tourism.
It benefits the people and warms people's hearts, and the lights in every house are welcoming. Issuing consumer coupons, running special tourist trains, and promoting coupons for scenic spots are all measures to benefit the people, which are simple responses to the people's "spend less and have more fun". Shandong Cultural Tourism Group launched a 199 yuan special discount card to visit more than 170 scenic spots. Tai'an has integrated cultural and tourism resources to plan and launch 50 holiday tourism activities and preferential policies, covering six categories of benefits to the people, such as ticket exemptions for scenic spots and hotel discounts. Some hotels can enjoy room discounts with scenic spot ticket stubs, and the airport bus has launched travel discounts. Allowing the masses to benefit, enterprises to be more dynamic, and the market to be more dynamic is not a slogan, but a visible and tangible action. Every penny of consumer coupons inspires confidence; every detail of measures to benefit the people warms people's hearts. The answer to expanding domestic demand, promoting consumption, and benefiting people's livelihood is written on the vast land and in the lights of thousands of homes. This is the most moving background for the development of cultural tourism.
The window of holiday culture and tourism not only reflects the consumption potential of the ultra-large-scale market, but also the diligent pursuit of a better life in an ancient civilization in the journey of modernization. From the unique activities of one city and one place to the resonance of culture and tourism across the country, the hot picture tells us that China’s economy has confidence, stamina and potential. When hundreds of millions of footsteps measure the land of the motherland, and when cultural confidence is integrated into daily life, the resilience and vitality of the Chinese economy have the deepest foundation. The moon fills the mountains and rivers, and reunion is the most moving thing in the world.
