Chinese consumers have shown greater interest in outbound travel during the upcoming Golden Week holiday, which is one day longer than usual, and travelers have booked their trips further in advance according to a report by China Daily.
China’s 2025 National Day Golden Week holiday will officially run from October 1 (Wednesday) to October 8 (Wednesday), making it a total of eight days, the longest the holiday has been in recent years. The extended holiday is due to the Mid-Autumn Festival falling on 6 October, which also results in two make-up working days: September 28 (Sunday) and October 11 (Saturday)
As of early September, the number of consumers planning to travel during the holiday had already surged by 130 percent year-on-year, according to Chinese tourism services firm U-tour.
It found that Chinese travellers had booked accommodation at over 2,800 hotels globally as of early September. In terms of hotel booking volumes, some of the most popular destinations include Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Malaysia and Vietnam, according to Qunar, a Beijing-based online travel agency.
Egypt, Vietnam, Uzbekistan, Cambodia and Sweden recorded the highest growth rates in hotel bookings, Qunar said.
Visa-free policies
Chinese travelers’ enthusiasm for overseas travel has been boosted by more convenient visa-free policies rolled out by multiple countries. For example, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand have introduced reciprocal visa-free policies with China, while South Korea and Russia have launched visa-free entry for group tours.
Trip.com Group, China’s largest online travel agency, found that Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore and Malaysia remain popular destinations for Chinese travelers, and countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative have become more sought-after.
More Chinese travelers are showing higher interest in visiting Africa, and the booking volume of travel products to Kenya and Tanzania during the holiday has surged 130 percent year-on-year, Trip.com found.
Inbound foreign tourists
Meanwhile, a large number of foreign visitors plan to travel to China during the holiday, with some of the most popular destinations being Shanghai; Beijing; Guangzhou, Guangdong province; Chengdu, Sichuan province; and Shenzhen, Guangdong province, Qunar found.
For source markets of inbound foreign tourists, the top five countries with the highest growth rate during the National Day holiday are Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Spain, Hungary and Saudi Arabia, according to Qunar.
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