2026 Golden Week Chinese Outbound Travel Forecasts

China’s seven-day public holiday for National Day starts on Thursday, 1 October, but many travelers departed for their Golden Week vacations early this year – on or even before the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday last Friday, 25 September. What should the international tourism industry expect from this “Super Golden Week”? We’ve rounded up all the industry reports released so far from Chinese OTAs and travel websites, as well as Dragon Trail’s own research.

Dragon Trail Research

We asked Chinese travelers about their Golden Week plans for our September 2026 Chinese Traveler Sentiment Report. Among our 1,010 survey respondents, 54% said they had plans to travel outbound during the holiday period, up from 35% in 2025.

Among the 546 respondents with outbound travel plans, 32% said they would travel during the October National Day holiday, 21% planned to depart before the Mid-Autumn Festival, and another 21% intended to travel across both holiday periods. 46% of our survey respondents planned to travel for 6-10 days during this Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday, with a further 12% planning to take longer trips of more than 10 days.

South Korea ranked as the leading outbound destination for holiday travel, chosen by 20.1%, far ahead of other countries. Singapore’s popularity has risen, moving up from 7th place during last year’s National Day holiday to 2nd this year; 6.6% of respondents plan to visit this Golden Week. Japan and Hong Kong followed closely at around 6% each.

The most common budget range, including international transportation and accommodation, fell within RMB10,000–20,000 per person (approximately US$1,488–2,976), chosen by 28% of respondents. 22% of respondents had budgets of over RMB30,000 per person (approximately US$4,464).

Chinese travelers showed a noticeable preference for mid-range accommodation over luxury options for Golden Week outbound travel. Mid-range hotels were the most popular choice (33%), followed by economy hotels (29%). In addition, 12% and 10% of respondents plan to stay in home-sharing accommodation and resorts, respectively, during their outbound trips over the holiday. Only 5% of travelers planned to choose luxury hotels. This trend was also reflected in accommodation budgets, with 39% of respondents planning to spend RMB500–1,000 (US$74–149) per night.

Tongcheng
OTA Tongcheng released their Golden Week forecast report on 14 September. As of that data, searches for outbound travel were up +260% month-on-month, with tripled searches for Europe and Australia. Multi-country and multi-destination travel is a theme this year, with multi-country tour bookings up 65% year-on-year, with an average of 2.8 countries visited. The top 10 destinations for bookings are Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Istanbul, Sydney, Singapore, Bali, Ho Chi Minh City, London, and Dubai. Our understanding of this list is that it may focus on “first outbound destinations” and include transport hubs rather than final destinations in some cases.

Trip.com Group
The Trip.com Group, which owns Ctrip, released its Golden Week data on 21 September. One trend was for longer stays, with outbound trips averaging more than nine days, and hotel stays of seven or more nights up by 123%. Another trend was early departures – more than half of outbound flight bookings were for departures from China before 1 October. Trip.com Group also saw strong growth for European cities and for long-haul flight bookings, as well as multi-city bookings, which were up by 84%. Beach and island destinations, and European cities known for culture were particularly popular. Looking at traveler demographics, young travelers aged 18-24 was the market segment with the highest year-on-year growth in outbound bookings.

Qunar
According to a China Daily report, Qunar’s booking data revealed “a stronger appetite for travel thanks to the longer vacation, [with] bookings on the platform for tour products during the two holidays [covering] more than 3,800 cities worldwide.” Top destinations included Thailand, South Korea, and Malaysia. Bookings for long-distance flights of more than 8,000 kilometers increased by 30%, with flight bookings to Venice, Stockholm and Geneva doubling since last year.

Mafengwo
Another China Daily article reported on Golden Week data from Chinese travel website Mafengwo. Searches on Mafengwo for outbound trips during the holiday were up by 128%, with Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand the leading destinations. “A wedding boom coinciding with the two holidays has increased searches for the Maldives, a honeymoon resort. Long-haul destinations including the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Europe have also shown considerable growth in search popularity,” reported China Daily.

RedNote
Chinese social media platform RedNote/Xiaohongshu released a report on Golden Week travel trends on 26 September, analyzing trends based on platform searches from June through August. The leading outbound countries by search volume were Japan, South Korea, and Malaysia, while some of the strongest countries for both volume and year-on-year growth in search queries were Vietnam, France, and Italy. With searches up by around 300%, the report identified Georgia and Kazakhstan as “explosive growth” countries. Meanwhile, Thailand, North Korea, the Philippines, and Mauritius all saw declining searches. For outbound cities, Tokyo, Osaka, and Jeju were the leaders, with strong growth for Okinawa, Busan, Kota Kinabalu, and Fukuoka. Search volume declined year on year for Phuket, Bali, Bangkok, and Semporna.

Travel trends on RedNote for the holiday include long-distance trips both domestically and abroad, to destinations such as Australia and New Zealand, Europe and Scandinavia, Türkiye, East Africa, and Egypt. Events travel is another trend, with travelers heading to Malaysia and Singapore for F1 races. RedNote users are looking to get outdoors to do activities like hiking, with popular destinations including Nepal, New Zealand, and combined trips to France, Italy, and Switzerland. The last trend for outbound tourism highlighted by the report is slow tourism, with travelers looking to unwind and relax in places like the Maldives, Bali, Chiang Mai, and Tahiti.

Tuniu
Travelers who booked trips on OTA Tuniu over the Golden Week period largely tried to avoid peak travel times, with 35% departing before 1 October, and 10% departing even before Mid-Autumn Festival. 31% of all Tuniu travelers (including domestic bookings) planned to travel for 4-6 days, with 26% traveling for 10 days or more.

The top 10 outbound destinations for Tuniu bookings were Indonesia, Maldives, Türkiye, South Korea, Thailand, New Zealand, Spain, Portugal, Australia and Egypt. Long trips were particularly popular, according to Tuniu’s 14 September report, with products including an 11-day tour of Türkiye; 26 days in the US and Canada to visit Yellowstone National Park and the Rocky Mountains; a New Zealand 12-day North and South Island tour; 13 days in France, Italy, and Switzerland; and a 13-day tour of Spain and Portugal. The most popular short-haul tours were six days in Malaysia’s Sabah and Koh Semana; seven days in Singapore and Malaysia; nine days in Bali; a seven-day tour of Vietnam; and a six-day South Korean tour from Seoul to Busan.

Umetrip
Flight analytics company Umetrip released its Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day travel forecast report on 17 September. The report noted an increase in both long and short haul outbound trips, with popular destinations including the UK, Russia, South Korea, and Thailand. Seoul is the no. 1 outbound destination, with a 50% year-on-year increase, followed by Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Taipei, London, Moscow, Hanoi, and Macao. As of 17 September, bookings to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hanoi, and London were all more than 20% ahead of last year’s Golden Week holiday period.

Sources:

Dragon Trail Chinese Traveler Sentiment Report: September 2026
Tourism surge expected with back-to-back holidays
Searches for ‘hidden gems’ surge during holiday
Mid-Autumn and National Day holiday window fuels surge in long-distance, outbound travel
Trip.com Group Reports Surge in Outbound, Inbound, and Regional Travel for Golden Week 2026
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