A research report from Orient Securities indicates that the 2026 Qingming Festival holiday coincides with spring breaks for primary and secondary schools in many regions (April 1-3), creating a six-day continuous holiday period when combined with the Qingming holiday (April 4-6). This has generated a "mini golden week" effect in spring. Benefiting from the overlap of spring break and Qingming, OTA platforms such as Trip.com Group-S, Fliggy, and TONGCHENGTRAVEL reported strong performance data. Key scenic spots like Mount Emei and Changbai Mountain showed significant divergence in visitor numbers, with some benefiting notably from the spring break effect. The consecutive holidays helped stabilize and boost travel figures during the Qingming period. As April progresses and spring breaks are implemented in more provinces and cities, travel activity is expected to remain robust.
Transportation data demonstrated steady growth, with railways and waterways showing particularly strong performance. According to Ministry of Transport statistics, cross-regional passenger trips during the Qingming holiday (April 4-6) reached an estimated 845 million, averaging approximately 280 million daily, representing a 6% increase compared to 2025. Railway passenger volume reached 57.679 million, averaging 19.23 million daily, up 8.2% year-over-year. Road passenger trips totaled 778 million, averaging 259 million daily, increasing 5.8% year-over-year. Waterway passenger volume reached 3.725 million, averaging 1.24 million daily, rising 9.8% year-over-year. Civil aviation passenger volume reached 5.524 million, averaging 1.84 million daily, declining 1.3% year-over-year.
OTA platforms showed impressive data, benefiting both from the holiday effect and their own penetration rate improvements, with long-distance travel and family trips serving as core drivers. Trip.com Group-S data indicated that during the combined spring break and Qingming period, orders from Jiangsu users increased 93% year-over-year, while Beijing led with 466% growth. Qunar platform data showed passengers traveling over 800 kilometers between April 1-6 increased more than 30% year-over-year. Fliggy data revealed domestic hotel booked room nights grew approximately 40% year-over-year, while domestic scenic spot ticket bookings increased over 70% year-over-year. TONGCHENGTRAVEL data reflected strong family travel demand, with family travelers accounting for nearly 40% of total travelers and family orders surging nearly 200% year-over-year.
Cross-border passenger flow continued its recovery pattern. According to National Immigration Administration statistics, immigration authorities nationwide processed 6.779 million inbound and outbound passenger trips during this year's Qingming holiday, averaging 2.26 million daily, representing 9.1% growth compared to the same period last year.
Key scenic spots demonstrated differentiated visitor growth patterns, with some benefiting significantly from spring break effects. Mount Emei Scenic Area received over 83,000 visitors during the three-day spring break (April 1-3), increasing 200% year-over-year, while receiving 137,300 visitors during the three-day Qingming holiday (April 4-6), rising 73.76% year-over-year. Changbai Mountain Scenic Area welcomed 12,625 visitors during the first two days of Qingming, with tourist reception volume growing 29.05% year-over-year. Mount Huashan Scenic Area received over 20,000 visitors in a single day, increasing more than 30% year-over-year. Huangshan Tourism reported 96,000 visitors during the holiday period, averaging 32,000 daily, slightly increasing 1% compared to the 2025 Qingming daily average of 31,700.
Consumer markets showed stable growth with active cross-city travel. Ministry of Commerce business big data indicated daily average sales at key retail and catering enterprises nationwide grew 2.4% year-over-year during the Qingming holiday. Passenger flow and revenue at 78 monitored pedestrian streets (commercial districts) increased 6.0% and 6.7% respectively. In service consumption, sales at key monitored catering enterprises grew 3.9% year-over-year. Hotel accommodation consumption on major platforms increased 2.6% year-over-year, while cross-city travel trips grew 15.1% year-over-year. Theme park consumption rose 11.7% year-over-year, family study tour orders doubled year-over-year, and car rental orders increased approximately 40% year-over-year.
Based on Qingming holiday tourism market performance, investment recommendations focus on the following sectors: Online travel platforms (OTAs), benefiting from rapid order growth and expanding user travel distances; and scenic area companies, particularly those with popular IPs or located in spring break hotspot destinations, showing significant passenger recovery. Overall, consecutive spring break holidays helped stabilize and improve Qingming travel figures. As spring breaks expand to more provinces and cities in April, travel activity is expected to maintain its positive momentum. Relevant investment targets include Trip.com Group-S (09961), TONGCHENGTRAVEL (00780), and Mount Emei A (000888.SZ).
Risk factors include: Seasonal fluctuation risks; policy change risks where adjustments to regional policies like spring breaks could affect travel patterns; macroeconomic and consumer confidence fluctuations; and potential impacts of significant fuel surcharge increases on price-sensitive travelers' willingness to travel.
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