A 13-day break is reshaping China’s Golden Week trips. Will travelers spend more?

Two holidays make room for a 13-day trip

China’s seven-day National Day holiday begins October 1, following the Mid-Autumn Festival break on September 25–27. Workers who take three days of annual leave between the holidays can stretch the break to 13 consecutive days, turning a standard week off into a window for longer trips. China Daily reported that the extended interval is attracting Asian destinations and creating room for both short-haul and multi-stop travel. chinadaily

The timing has already shaped departure plans. Trip.com Group said more than half of its outbound flight bookings for the holiday period were for departures before October 1, and the average planned trip was longer than nine days. Those are platform bookings, not a count of all Chinese travelers or completed trips. prnewswire

Bookings point to longer, more complex itineraries

Trip.com reported that bookings for hotel stays of seven nights or longer were up 123% year over year, while multi-destination itineraries rose 84%. The comparisons use the extended 2026 travel window of September 25–October 7 and the October 1–8 holiday period in 2025; the periods differ in length, and the figures describe activity on Trip.com’s platform. prnewswire

An independent survey by tourism consultancy Dragon Trail International also points to outbound demand: 54% of its 1,010 respondents said they planned an overseas trip during the holiday period, compared with 35% in its 2025 survey. But the preference mix does not look exclusively luxury-led: the most common stated total budget for transport and lodging was 10,000–20,000 yuan per person, and just 5% said they planned to stay in luxury hotels. Survey intentions are not completed purchases or a national headcount. dragontrail

More travel is not proof of a spending boom

China has also rolled out more than 20,000 cultural and tourism events and over 310 million yuan in vouchers and subsidies to encourage holiday spending. The campaign covers the Mid-Autumn and National Day breaks. english

The caution is last year’s gap between movement and outlay. Official figures cited by Xinhua put 888 million domestic trips and 809 billion yuan in tourism spending across the 2025 eight-day holiday. Reuters calculated that as 911.04 yuan per trip, the lowest average in three years. A trip is not a unique traveler, and the longer holiday makes year-to-year totals difficult to compare directly. english +1

As the holiday starts, the booking data show that travelers are planning farther-reaching itineraries—not yet how much they will spend. The actual 2026 trip and spending totals have not been reported.