The first "Spring Golden Week" of 2026 has concluded, with extended spring breaks implemented in many regions leading to a concentrated release of public travel and consumption demand, injecting strong momentum into the recovering spring consumer market. An analysis of publicly available data from the retail, catering, and cultural tourism sectors, as well as physical commerce consumption reports released by several provinces and key cities, reveals that the consumer market during this year's Qingming holiday period exhibited a positive trend of steady recovery, structural optimization, and frequent highlights.
The Qingming holiday overlapped with spring breaks for schools in many areas, creating a synergistic effect that spurred demand for visiting relatives, tomb sweeping, spring outings, leisure vacations, and study trips. This gave rise to comprehensive consumption scenarios spanning transportation, cultural tourism and accommodation, catering and retail, and energy replenishment. Data from the Ministry of Transport indicates that over the three-day holiday, cross-regional passenger trips across society are estimated to have reached 840 million. Passenger volume on the first day for railways, highways, and civil aviation all exceeded historical peaks for the same period.
Bolstered strongly by family and parent-child travel, the domestic tourism market experienced a surge in visitor numbers, forcing many popular scenic spots to implement temporary crowd control measures. Data from Tongcheng Travel shows that among vacation product departures between April 1st and 6th, parent-child groups accounted for nearly 40%, a 17 percentage point increase year-on-year, with orders growing by nearly 200% year-on-year. Driven by the spring break, air ticket demand from passengers under 18 years old increased significantly, rising by 47% domestically and 22% internationally. Furthermore, overall booking heat for tourism products increased nearly twofold compared to the previous period, with bookings for theme parks, cultural and museum sites, and zoos surging by over 120%.
Data from the Fliggy platform shows that during the Qingming holiday, domestic hotel booked room nights increased by approximately 40% year-on-year, while domestic attraction ticket bookings grew by over 70% year-on-year. In terms of popular cities for hotel bookings, major cities with concentrated tourism resources and spring outing destinations like the Jiangnan water towns remained highly popular, with Beijing ranking first. Qunar.com data indicates that between April 1st and 6th, the number of travelers with a travel radius exceeding 800 kilometers increased by over 30% year-on-year. Volume on popular flight routes increased by 40% year-on-year, and hotel bookings in destinations like Sanya and Haikou grew by over 40% year-on-year. The top 10 cities for Qingming holiday hotel bookings were: Beijing, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Xi'an, Chongqing, Wuhan, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Chengdu, and Changsha.
Additionally, this year's Qingming holiday coincided with Easter overseas, further boosting the inbound tourism market. Data from multiple travel platforms on April 6th showed that inbound tourism order volume grew between 70% and 100%. Inbound tourism during Qingming continued the growth momentum seen since the Spring Festival, also demonstrating a trend of shifting from sheer "volume" towards "quality."
Notably, the film market during the Qingming period performed remarkably well, with a diverse range of genres released intensively, setting a new record for the number of screenings. Online platform data shows that as of 24:00 on April 6th, the total box office for the 2026 Qingming period concluded at 305 million yuan, with a total of 1.4549 million screenings. Nearly 20 films were released during the period, covering various genres such as revolutionary history, realistic warmth, and suspense thriller, providing audiences with rich viewing choices.
**Beijing** According to statistics from the Beijing Municipal Commerce Bureau, during the Qingming holiday, passenger traffic in 60 key commercial districts in Beijing reached 24.669 million人次, with consumer spending amounting to 6.53 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 0.8%. Key monitored enterprises in sectors including department stores, supermarkets, specialty stores, catering, and e-commerce achieved sales of 2.95 billion yuan. Among these, the department store sector grew by 12.8% year-on-year, and the catering sector grew by 5.3%.
Specifically, the effects of consumption promotion policies continued to be evident. National subsidy policies covered 6 categories of home appliances and 4 categories of digital smart products, meeting daily household and quality consumption needs, effectively stimulating market vitality. During the holiday, sales of relevant subsidized goods reached 51,200 units, generating sales of 203 million yuan. Simultaneously, the car trade-in policy took effect, with subsidy funds applied for amounting to 14.1698 million yuan, driving new car sales of 240 million yuan. Furthermore, the "invoice lottery" activity continued, with the allocation of prizes during the holiday increased to three times the usual level. From April 4th to 5th, cumulative participants reached 467,000 people, who uploaded 940,000 invoices, with 367,000 winning invoices and prizes totaling approximately 6.585 million yuan.
**Tianjin** During the 2026 Qingming holiday, Tianjin, leveraging seasonal characteristics and focusing on "spring outings, flower viewing, cultural experiences, and leisure consumption," deeply integrated commerce, culture, tourism, and sports. The city launched over 150 special promotional consumption activities, combined with universal consumer subsidy policies, fully unleashing the "spring economy." The consumer market displayed a vibrant and diversified landscape. Over the three holiday days, 468 key monitored commercial circulation enterprises in the city accumulated sales of 1.03 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.4%, with cumulative in-store passenger traffic of 7.699 million人次, up 1% year-on-year.
Major commercial districts and streets across the city seized the opportunity of the Qingming holiday, aligning with spring outing consumption demand by actively introducing flagship stores and debut shows, increasing promotional efforts, and creating integrated consumption scenes, driving growth in both客流 and sales. Over the three holiday days, 57 key shopping centers monitored by the Municipal Commerce Bureau saw cumulative sales and passenger traffic increase by 10.3% and 2.9% year-on-year, respectively. Meanwhile, 246 monitored餐饮 sample enterprises achieved a cumulative turnover growth of 15.1% year-on-year over the three days.
**Chongqing** During the 2026 Qingming Festival, which overlapped with the extended spring break in Chongqing, the city's commercial system closely focused on the spring consumption season. By integrating commerce, culture, tourism, sports, exhibitions, and agriculture, it created diverse new consumption scenarios, promoting an early warming and sustained vibrancy in the spring consumer market. Monitoring data showed that total consumption in the city during the Qingming period increased by 6.9% year-on-year. Retail sales of goods grew by 5.6% year-on-year, while the total sales in 20 key commercial districts in the central urban area increased by 7.9% year-on-year, with average daily passenger flow also rising by 7.9%.
**Hebei** During the Qingming holiday, Hebei's commercial system seized the golden window for holiday consumption, promoting the deep integration of commerce, tourism, culture, sports, and health, and accelerating the innovation of consumption scenarios. According to calculations based on China UnionPay Big Data, the province's total consumer spending during the holiday reached 16.577 billion yuan, an increase of 6.4% compared to last year's Qingming holiday.
In retail, seasonal and upgraded products sold well. For instance, sales at 14 supermarket stores in Chengde city reached 5.205 million yuan, up 7.6% compared to the previous year's holiday. In catering, demand for family gatherings and spring outing meals was robust. Turnover at 52 key monitored餐饮 enterprises in Handan city reached 3.88 million yuan, growing 5.5% year-on-year. In accommodation, short-distance self-drive tours drove lodging consumption. The occupancy rate for characteristic homestays in Xindu District, Xingtai city, reached 80%. Six key hotels in the Xiong'an New Area achieved a turnover of 1.71 million yuan.
During the holiday, cumulative passenger traffic in key monitored pedestrian streets across the province reached approximately 1.467 million人次, an increase of 10.2% compared to last year's Qingming holiday. Cumulative sales reached approximately 71.937 million yuan, up 12.9% year-on-year. Specifically, the Wanlimiao Pedestrian Street in Shijiazhuang saw passenger traffic of 392,100人次 and sales of 53.8571 million yuan. Cumulative passenger traffic in key monitored multi-format integrated consumption scenes across the province reached about 3.986 million人次, an 11.5% year-on-year increase. Cumulative sales reached approximately 119 million yuan, up 13.2% year-on-year. Among these, the "Nanchuang Old Street" scene in Cangzhou city attracted 93,000 visitors and generated sales of 4.26 million yuan.
**Sichuan** According to statistics from the Sichuan Provincial Commerce Department, on April 4th and 5th, 550 key commercial circulation enterprises in the province achieved sales of 1.13 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.3%.
**Zhejiang, Ningbo** From April 4th to 5th, 50 key monitored sample enterprises in Ningbo achieved combined sales of 280 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.5%, indicating a steady growth trend in the consumer market. By format, 12 specialty stores achieved sales of 74.37 million yuan, up 21% year-on-year. Several automobile brands saw significant sales growth, and some emerging electric vehicle brands continued to contribute incremental growth due to store expansion and increased production capacity. The supermarket sector accumulated sales of 48.908 million yuan, up 9% year-on-year. Large membership-based warehouse clubs and local chain supermarkets performed steadily, while some small and medium-sized supermarkets struggled to grow under pressure from both客流 and average transaction value. Shopping centers were bustling with activity, achieving sales of 103 million yuan, an increase of 8.4% year-on-year.
By product category, spring outing and seasonal change demand drove sales of knitwear and textiles, cosmetics, and apparel, which increased by 46.2%, 21.5%, and 8.9% year-on-year, respectively. Automobile consumption remained hot, growing 24.1% year-on-year. Holiday gatherings and spring outing consumption boosted sales of beverages and餐饮-related goods, which grew by 22.6% and 19.4% year-on-year, respectively.
**Jiangsu, Nanjing** China UnionPay Big Data monitoring shows that Nanjing achieved consumer spending (retail, accommodation, catering) during the spring break and Qingming holiday period growing 9.8% year-on-year, delivering an impressive "spring report card" for the consumer market. Substantial consumer benefits helped to continuously release consumption potential. During the holiday, Nanjing, in conjunction with the "invoice lottery" activity, specially launched an "instant draw" for the spring break, offering daily chances to win 10, 20, or 50 yuan red envelopes, which could be叠加ed with the regular draws. Since its launch, 1.235 million invoices have been successfully uploaded, allowing citizens to "win prizes while spending, adding joy to the spring break."
**Key Commercial Districts and Shopping Centers Show Active Consumption** According to commercial big data from the Ministry of Commerce, during the Qingming holiday, the average daily sales of key national retail and餐饮 enterprises increased by 2.4% year-on-year. Passenger traffic and business turnover in 78 key monitored pedestrian streets (commercial districts) by the Ministry of Commerce grew by 6.0% and 6.7%, respectively.
In terms of goods consumption, as of April 5th, 2026, a total of 1.526 million subsidies had been received for the automobile trade-in program, driving new car sales of 246.8 billion yuan. Sales of home appliance trade-ins, and new digital and smart products reached 62.845 million units, driving sales of 215.97 billion yuan. Commercial big data shows that sales of smart glasses and smart watches/bands on key platforms increased by 3.2 times and 12.3 times, respectively.
In service consumption, during the Qingming holiday, sales at key餐饮 enterprises monitored by the Ministry of Commerce grew by 3.9% year-on-year. Consumption on hotel accommodation on key platforms increased by 2.6%, cross-city travel人次 grew by 15.1% year-on-year, theme park consumption increased by 11.7% year-on-year, parent-child study tour orders doubled year-on-year, and car rental orders grew by approximately 40%.
While the national consumption market steadily recovered, commercial districts across various localities also stimulated holiday vitality through scene innovation and thematic activities, with particularly notable performances in cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Nanjing.
Beijing's key commercial districts promoted deep integration of culture, commerce, tourism, sports, and exhibitions through diverse scene creation: The "Longfu Trend Market" in Dongcheng District's Longfusi area gathered time-honored brands and intangible cultural heritage brands, creating a distinctive market IP. The market attracted 139,000 visitors in the first two days of the holiday. The Spring Market at Wukesong Huaxi LIVE in Haidian District, featuring cultural and creative handicrafts, floral art, and trendy toys, gathered popularity. Consumption in the Wukesong business district increased by 27.5% year-on-year. In Tongzhou District, Wanli·Wangfujing WellTown launched simultaneous "Spring Retail SP" and "Delicious Moments·Functional餐饮 SP" promotions. The Universal Studios resort upgraded its spring party, gathering popular IPs like "Genshin Impact" and "Chang'an Thirty Thousand Li," driving passenger traffic in the surrounding business district up by 1.2 times year-on-year.
Shanghai's comprehensive blocks also featured a variety of activities, attracting crowds with scenarized consumption, resulting in a significant holiday effect. On the first day of the Qingming holiday (April 4th), cumulative passenger flow in the Shanghai Bund waterfront area reached 560,000人次, up 42.7% year-on-year; Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street saw 271,000人次, up 50% year-on-year; and Yuyuan Garden attracted 186,000人次, an increase of 9.8% year-on-year. Additionally, Wujiang Road hosted an American Flavor Season, Yuyuan Road combined with "Shanghai Spring" to host an accordion street open mic, Sinan Mansions launched the "Spring Fermentation Plan" market, and The Bund Finance Center launched the "Floral Block." Events like the Flower Goddess Parade at Panlong Tiandi, the first Kite Festival at Global Harbor, the Ferris wheel主题活动 at Shanghai Joy City, and the Cherry Blossom Season at Skyline Soho, all adopted an integrated model of "market + performance + scene," successfully creating new consumption scenarios combining scenery, food, culture, and shopping, fully unleashing the potential of the holiday economy.
Beyond scene creation, the "first store economy" also served as an important engine for driving holiday consumption in many places. Nanjing welcomed a batch of significant new store openings around the holiday. Suning Fun, a youth-focused center under Suning.com, opened its first national flagship store in Xinjiekou, targeting Gen Z and creating a smart retail scene integrating entertainment, shopping, socializing, and experience, injecting youthful energy into the Xinjiekou business district. On April 3rd, the fresh snack retail brand Jiduo opened its first Jiangsu province store in Nanjing's Yuhua MixC World, pioneering a snack health grading system and focusing on fresh, short-shelf-life foods, attracting many young people to try it. The Jiangsu debut store of Yunnan mushroom hot pot restaurant JunGu·Yunnan Jianshouqing also opened before the holiday, bringing rare delicacies from the deep mountains to Nanjing's dining tables.
Industry analysis suggests that spring break consumption exhibited distinct characteristics of deep scene integration and robust supply and demand, also reflecting the ongoing upgrade of domestic consumption from traditional sightseeing towards experiential and quality-oriented models.
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