Visitors queue to enter the Palace Museum in Beijing, on April 22, 2026. (Photo: VCG)

China's 2026 May Day holiday travel market is heating up, with flight and hotel bookings already entering a peak period, according to data from major online travel platforms.

With the May Day holiday approaching, domestic tourism bookings continue to climb. Data from multiple online travel platforms shows that this year's May Day holiday, combined with the spring break effect, is creating a prolonged holiday period. Demand for in-depth experiential tourism is being released in a concentrated manner, with small-town tourism gaining significant popularity, while county-level destinations and high-end hotels have become new booking highlights, the Paper.cn reported.

Inbound travel has emerged as a bright spot in China's May Day holiday spending, while domestic tourism is seeing modest growth amid nationwide efforts to boost consumption. The domestic tourism market during this year's May Day holiday is expected to display a broadly positive growth trajectory, an industry insider said on Wednesday.

The May Day holiday, running from May 1 to 5, is typically one of the busiest travel periods of the year. During this time, millions of Chinese travelers hit the road to visit family, explore domestic destinations, or venture abroad. This surge in travel provides a boost to the transportation, tourism and retail sectors, Xu Xiaolei, marketing manager at CYTS Tours Holding Co, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Over the eight-day period covering May Day holiday, Shanghai's railway stations are expected to handle 4.83 million passenger trips, with an average daily volume of more than 600,000, representing a year-on-year increase of 5.42 percent, according to the Shanghai Railway Bureau, the Paper.cn reported on Wednesday.

According to Xu, inquiries and bookings for CYTS' domestic May Day tours have risen rapidly since last week.

Data from Meituan Travel showed that bookings for transportation and travel services during the May Day holiday are up 28 percent year-on-year.

According to data provided by Tongcheng Travel, searches for May Day travel products have jumped 364 percent month-on-month, while bookings for flights, hotels, homestays and tickets in some popular cities were up nearly 40 percent from a year earlier, said the Paper.cn report.

In terms of outbound travel, Tongcheng said that the top 10 outbound destinations include South Korea, Egypt, Russia, Italy, the UK and Switzerland, with bookings for short-haul products for Seoul and Jeju Island up more than 150 percent month-on-month.

However, in contrast to the robust travel demand, volatility in international aviation fuel prices, driven by geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, has resulted in the cancellation of certain international flights, redirecting tourist demand toward domestic destinations, Xu said.

As airfares rise and international routes remain uncertain, more travelers are opting for road trips and domestic short-haul vacations. Bookings for destinations within a five-hour drive of provincial capitals have increased significantly, while hotel reservations in popular third- and lower-tier cities have doubled year-on-year, according to data that Chinese travel agency Qunar sent to the Global Times on Wednesday.

Travel agencies are seeing strong demand. Zhongxin Tourism said that bookings are up 53 percent year-on-year, while its product offerings have expanded 150 percent. It expects May Day customer numbers to exceed 20,000, the Securities Times reported.

Chinese travel agency Fliggy told the Global Times on Wednesday that demand for immersive travel experiences has been rising sharply, with searches for hiking, fruit picking and trekking up 130 percent year-on-year. Outbound one-day and multi-day tour bookings have risen 50 percent.

Domestic sporting events, music festivals, and other celebrations have also effectively boosted people's willingness to travel. The 2026 Jiangsu Football City League, China's grassroots football match which also known as the "2026 Su Super League," is scheduled to overlap with the May Day holiday, making "traveling through Jiangsu with the Super League" a popular theme.

The May Day holiday is fueling a wave of demand for immersive travel experiences. Small-city tourism is gaining remarkable popularity, while county-level destinations and high-end hotels have emerged as new booking highlights. The trend suggests that Chinese travelers are increasingly moving beyond traditional tourist hotspots in favor of more personalized, in-depth, and experience-oriented trips, Jiang Yiyi, a tourism and sports expert at Beijing Sport University, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

This shift also reflects a broader transformation in China's tourism market: people are no longer satisfied with simply "visiting" a place, but are seeking to "live" in it, even if only for a few days, Jiang said.

Jiang said that the trend could help spread tourism spending more evenly across the country during the holiday period, while also encouraging a more diversified and resilient travel market in the long run.