SHANGHAI, September 22 — The numbers landed on Monday, and they tell a story of a holiday that has outgrown its own calendar. Trip.com Group’s data release on September 21 shows Chinese travellers stretching Golden Week 2026 into something longer, farther and more layered than the version the official dates allow. At its heart is a simple arithmetic trick.
By combining three days of leave with the official Golden Week and Mid-Autumn Festival holidays, workers can extend their break to 13 days. Outbound departures are projected to begin as early as September 25 — well before the official holiday start on October 1 — with the average trip lasting over nine days.
More than half of outbound flight bookings are scheduled before October 1, and peak departure days are expected on September 25 and September 30. Trip.com attributes the shift to the Mid-Autumn Festival falling on the Friday before Golden Week, prompting travellers to leave earlier and avoid peak travel periods. The result is a departure curve that now begins in September rather than October.
Longer trips, farther destinations
Bookings for hotel stays of seven nights or more increased 123% year-on-year. Major European cities such as London and Paris are experiencing faster growth in bookings, and long-haul flight bookings are expected to grow double-digit year-on-year, with demand focused on gateway cities in Europe, Australia and the United States. Multi-destination travel is rising too.
Bookings for itineraries covering multiple cities grew 84% year-on-year, with popular multi-stop combinations including Singapore-Bali, Hong Kong-Sydney and Amsterdam-Milan. Southeast Asia and Europe lead these trips.
Interest in nature and cultural destinations is climbing. Searches for “scenic trips” and “nature getaways” rose 53% year-on-year. Coastal and high-altitude cities such as Qingdao, Lhasa and Kashgar are among the fastest-growing domestic destinations by flight bookings, while mountainous regions like Xiangxi, Zhangjiajie and Guilin are gaining popularity among rail travellers.
For outbound travel, island destinations are in high demand. Jeju and Bali are among the top 10 most booked international flight destinations, and Southeast Asian beach locations such as Cebu and Phuket have seen year-on-year flight booking increases of 111% and 78%, respectively.
In Europe, cities known for cultural heritage such as Brussels and Athens are also recording significant year-on-year growth in flight bookings.
The young are driving the change
Millennials and Generation Z are leading the increase in bookings. Travellers aged 18 to 24 show the highest year-on-year growth across age groups. New Zealand is emerging as a popular destination among Gen Z, with Queenstown and Auckland reporting year-on-year increases in flight bookings of 314% and 276%, respectively.
Secondary cities including Incheon and Chiang Mai are also attracting more travellers from this demographic. Seoul is the top global holiday destination for Golden Week 2026, with a 91% year-on-year increase in international flight bookings.
Other South Korean cities, including Busan, Cheongju and Daegu, are also seeing triple-digit year-on-year growth in global flight bookings. Japan remains a popular destination for travellers from Malaysia, Thailand and South Korea. The overlap of Golden Week with South Korea’s Chuseok holiday is contributing to increased regional travel; South Korean travellers can extend their Chuseok holiday by taking three days off, resulting in increased travel activity.
Flight bookings to Fukuoka and Shanghai have grown by 70% and 68% year-on-year, respectively. Japanese and Chinese travellers are the main contributors to this regional trend.
Inbound China, and what comes next
Inbound tourism to China is also rising during the Golden Week and Mid-Autumn Festival period. Lesser-known cities such as Yanji, Dunhuang and Hailar are experiencing some of the fastest increases in flight bookings. Major cities like Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou continue to attract strong inbound flows, particularly from Hong Kong SAR, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and Australia.
Key attractions for inbound visitors include the Mutianyu Great Wall, the most popular route on Trip.com’s Beijing Express layover tour. That tour, launched in December 2024, allows international travellers with layovers of over eight hours to visit top Beijing sites such as the Mutianyu Great Wall, Temple of Heaven and Tiananmen Square.
Other popular attractions include Shanghai Disney Resort, Emperor Qinshihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum, and Zhangjiajie National Forest Park. What to watch next is whether the early-departure pattern holds through the peak days of September 25 and September 30, and whether the multi-city itineraries that grew 84% year-on-year translate into sustained demand for long-haul routes into Europe, Australia and the United States. For now, the data points to a holiday that starts earlier, runs longer and reaches farther than the calendar alone would suggest.
