Extra-long holidays ignite travel demand, A-share tourism sector active

The long holiday has ignited travel demand. This year’s Mid-Autumn Festival holiday and the National Day holiday are only three days apart. From September 28th to 30th, the “3 days off and 13 days off” plan creates the “longest travel window of the year.” Reporters learned from multiple travel platforms that many consumers plan their itineraries and lock in air tickets in advance. At present, related hotel and air ticket bookings have increased significantly. Benefiting from this, the A-share tourism sector has become active again recently.

Industry insiders said that the "Double Festival" is an important node for observing the operating performance of cultural and tourism companies in the second half of the year. How to optimize product supply, how to convert passenger flow growth into real revenue, and continuously improve profit performance are all worthy of investors' continued attention.

Due to the delayed release of summer travel demand, bookings for travel products during this year's "Double Festival" started faster than in previous years. Tongcheng Travel data shows that as of September 14, the search popularity of keywords such as "Mid-Autumn Festival" and "National Day" on the platform increased by 278% month-on-month, and the popularity of booking air tickets, hotels, car rentals, vacations and other products has increased across the board. Among them, the popularity of air ticket bookings in popular domestic cities increased by more than 40% year-on-year, and the proportion of long-stay hotel bookings of more than 5 days increased by about 7 percentage points compared with the same period last year.

Judging from the booking data, demand release is obviously accelerating. Ctrip data shows that during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day, the number of air ticket orders increased by about 50% year-on-year, and the number of hotel orders nearly tripled year-on-year. Data from Air Travel Zongheng showed that the number of domestic flight ticket bookings for travel dates from September 25 to October 7 exceeded 6.06 million, a year-on-year increase of about 14%; during the same period, the number of inbound and outbound flight ticket bookings increased by about 7% year-on-year.

Tongcheng Research Institute also believes that the 2026 Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday will present three major trend characteristics: "extended time, expanded space, and deepened experience." The combined vacation strategy and the autumn vacation policy for primary and secondary schools not only effectively disperse travel pressure, but also release the consumption potential of medium and long-distance travel.

"The overall popularity of travel during this year's ultra-long holiday is higher than in previous years, which is conducive to long-term travel." Yang Han, a researcher at the Qunar Travel Big Data Research Institute, said that so far, hotel bookings for the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday in popular cities on the platform have increased by 30% year-on-year.

The semi-annual reports of listed companies confirm the rebound in industry prosperity. Taking Three Gorges Tourism as an example, in the first half of 2026, it achieved revenue of 414 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.09%; net profit attributable to the parent company was 79.55 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 25.04%. Huangshan Tourism achieved revenue of 988 million yuan in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 5.11%; net profit attributable to the parent company was 130 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.94%.

Looking forward to the market outlook, many institutions believe that the tourism sector has entered the peak season verification period, and the market is expected to achieve structural improvement on the basis of continued growth in total volume. CICC predicts that the ultra-long holiday may provide positive support to long-term tourism and passenger flow in core scenic spots. Soochow Securities also said that with the delayed release of demand, weakening weather disturbances, the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, and the autumn holidays for primary and secondary schools, the industry is expected to return to prosperity. (Reporter Wei Xiayi)