The China Hospitality Association has noted that the extended "super long Golden Week" created by taking bridging leave helped drive vibrant and dynamic consumption across the national accommodation and catering market during the holiday period.
Stable foot traffic, attractive prices, and strong demand for experiences: During the 2026 National Day holiday, the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays were separated, allowing people to "take 3 days off and rest for 13 days" and create the longest travel window of the year. The tourism and consumption markets welcomed a new wave of enthusiasm, providing solid demand support for the accommodation and catering industry. Data from the Ministry of Transport showed that during the seven-day National Day holiday, cross-regional travel nationwide was expected to reach 2.13 billion person-trips, averaging about 300 million per day, 1.7 times the usual level. October 1 saw the travel peak, with about 340 million person-trips in a single day, nearly twice the normal level, and self-driving and highway travel accounted for more than 90%. Business big data from the Ministry of Commerce showed that in the first three days of the National Day holiday, foot traffic and revenue at 78 key pedestrian streets and business districts increased by 3.4% and 5.3% year on year, respectively, indicating a steady recovery in physical consumption. At the same time, local consumption markets were also warm and active. Survey data from the China Hospitality Association showed that the basic market for accommodation enterprises during the National Day holiday was solid: 72.7% of surveyed enterprises saw occupancy rates increase or remain flat year on year, with an average increase of 8.2%; average room prices generally declined, with an average drop of 8.7%, as accommodation enterprises widely used more cost-effective pricing strategies to attract foot traffic and benefit guests. Consumer enthusiasm in the catering market remained high: 53.8% of surveyed enterprises saw foot traffic increase or remain flat year on year, with an average increase of 6.8%; 53.8% of surveyed enterprises saw average spending per customer increase or remain flat year on year, with an average increase of 1.1%, with prices stable and affordable. Overall, during this year's National Day holiday, the accommodation and catering consumption market was vibrant and full of momentum. Driven by the extended holiday window, consumption-boosting policies, and innovative supply from enterprises, it showed distinctive features of "stable foot traffic, favorable prices, and hot demand for experiences": occupancy rates in the accommodation industry were stable and improving, catering consumption remained strong, and the reasonable pullback in price levels allowed consumers to enjoy services at more affordable prices, further highlighting inclusive and experience-oriented consumption. At the same time, it should also be noted that consumption has become more rational and market competition more intense, with business operations and profitability increasingly divergent across the industry, placing higher demands on the quality of industry supply and service capabilities. During this year's National Day holiday, the accommodation and catering consumption market showed five distinctive characteristics: "the extended holiday activated long-haul travel, with multi-city travel becoming the mainstream mode of travel"; "lower-tier markets and county-level areas continued to lead, becoming new growth poles for holiday consumption"; "local specialty cuisine led holiday catering consumption, becoming the core driver of growth in the catering market"; "experience consumption, ticket-stub economy, and sports event economy resonated together, making paying for unique experiences a trend"; and "inbound tourism continued to heat up, with the facilitation of service consumption fully penetrating." These reflect structural changes and upgrading trends in China's consumer market.
Consumption logic shifting toward "experientialism": Policies, supply, and consumption logic together shaped the new market landscape. The China Hospitality Association analyzed that the above characteristics of the accommodation and catering market during the 2026 National Day holiday were driven both by policy support and by evolving market demand. The time window formed by the extended holiday was the primary precondition for this year's market heat. This year, the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays were separated by only three working days, and the 13-day extended holiday created by "taking 3 days off and resting for 13 days" became a popular choice. The lengthening of the holiday not only extended the consumption cycle but also changed the consumption structure. Policy efforts were precisely targeted, with consumption vouchers and visa-free benefits forming a combined force. On the eve of National Day, the fourth batch of 62.5 billion yuan in ultra-long special treasury bonds for 2026 and support funds for consumer goods trade-ins were fully allocated to various regions. In the first three days of the holiday, trade-ins drove 19.63 billion yuan in sales and benefited 3.483 million person-times. Local governments simultaneously launched cultural and tourism benefit subsidies and catering consumption vouchers, creating a linked effect of government subsidies, platform discounts, and enterprise benefits. The continued expansion of visa-free policies directly drove rapid growth in inbound foot traffic, bringing new increments to port cities and key tourism cities. At the same time, platform antitrust enforcement carried out by the State Administration for Market Regulation since July effectively improved the industry's business and competitive environment, strongly boosted practitioner confidence, and played a positive role in stabilizing the National Day holiday consumer market. On the supply side, enterprises actively innovated, accelerating scenario iteration and business format integration. Facing new consumer demand, accommodation and catering enterprises no longer passively waited for foot traffic but actively created scenarios and rhythms: on the accommodation side, differentiated products such as themed rooms, family room types, and local cultural experiences continued to enrich, with "one store, one strategy" becoming a common approach to meeting dual-track demand; on the catering side, new forms such as immersive dining shows, intangible cultural heritage skill demonstrations, film and television IP collaborations, first stores in scenic areas, and instant retail emerged in concentrated fashion. Consumption logic accelerated its shift toward "experientialism." This shift explains both the high growth of immersive performances, night tours, and in-depth small-group pure-play tours, and why foot traffic heat and average spending per customer did not move entirely in sync: consumers are not unwilling to spend, but are shifting their budgets from showiness to experiences, from "buying expensive" to "buying the right thing." The performance of the accommodation and catering industry during the 2026 National Day holiday reflects that the consumer market is accelerating its transition from scale expansion to quality improvement, and that the driving force of industry growth is shifting from traffic dividends to structural dividends.
Comments