Sunday marks the official launch of ticket sales for the first day of the 2026 Spring Festival holiday, which  falls on February 15, in line with the 15-day advance ticketing policy. The official train ticket-booking platform 12306 showed that tickets for travel from Beijing to many popular domestic destinations on February 15 were in extremely high demand, with tickets for most services selling out immediately.

This year's Spring Festival holiday runs from February 15 to February 23, totaling nine days following work schedule adjustments. Employees will work on February 14 and February 28.

Only a handful of services still have seats available in selected classes, including business class, hard seat, and standing tickets. Since the first day of the Spring Festival holiday does not fall on New Year's Eve this year, many travelers have opted to depart on February 15 to ensure they return home in time for the New Year's Eve family reunion.

Train tickets on February 15 from Beijing to cities such as Shijiazhuang, Zhengzhou, Wuhan and Xi'an were sold out almost immediately after sales opened, with waitlist quotas for some popular trains already filled, according to the 12306 platform.

The upcoming Spring Festival travel rush period spans from February 2 to March 13, lasting 40 days, during which national railway passenger trips are expected to reach 539 million, up 5 percent a year-on-year, media reported.

Based on a comprehensive analysis, nationwide cross-regional passenger trips are  projected to reach 9.5 billion during this period, setting a new historical record. Among these, private car travels will continue to dominate, accounting for about 80 percent of trips. Railway and civil aviation passenger numbers are expected to reach 540 million and 95 million, respectively, with both the total volumes and daily peaks anticipated to exceed historical levels for the same period, according to the State Council Information Office.

This Spring Festival, many young people are opting out of the frantic scramble for  tickets home. Instead, some are inviting their parents to fly to major cities for New Year celebrations.

Hotels in major urban centers have embraced this "reverse reunion" trend, offering not only reunion dinners and traditional festive activities but also services such as professional family portrait sessions for the Year of the Horse, Travel Daily reported, citing travel platform Qunar's big data.

According to Qunar, during the Spring Festival period, flight bookings by passengers aged 60 and above increased by more than 35 percent year-on-year. Their most favored destinations are first-tier and new first-tier cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Shenzhen.

Additionally, many elderly travelers took their first flight during this Spring Festival, with the number of passengers aged 60 and above purchasing their "first-ever flight ticket" on Qunar rising by 22 percent.

According to the platform, among the top 10 most popular domestic flight destinations during the Spring Festival, nine are located in southern China: Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Haikou, Kunming, Hangzhou, Sanya, and Chongqing.

The nine-day holiday also spurred demand for long-distance travel, with travelers heading north to Norway to chase the aurora and south to New Zealand for a reverse-season summer getaway. However, Asian destinations remain the bedrock of outbound travel market thanks to their shorter flight durations, favorable visa policies and strong cost-effectiveness. The most popular outbound destinations during this year's Spring Festival are Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Hong Kong, Russia, Australia, Indonesia, and Spain, Travel Daily reported.

On inbound travel, data from Chinese online travel platforms showed that during this Lunar New Year period, bookings by foreign tourists increased sharply, with bookings by Russian tourists surging by 471 percent year-on-year, Shanghai-based Shangguan News reported.

According to reports by The Paper and China News Service, Ctrip's platform data indicate that inbound tourism continued to heat up during the Spring Festival, with bookings from Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore, Japan and Russia leading the rankings. Among these, bookings by Russian tourists surged by 471 percent year-on-year, while bookings by South Korean tourists increased by 95 percent year-on-year.

Data from Fliggy shows that over the past two weeks, flight bookings by foreign tourists for the Spring Festival grew by more than 400 percent year-on-year. Cities such as Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Beijing and Chengdu have become the most popular initial entry cities for inbound travelers, Shangguan News reported.