Use the filters below to find published updates by topic, region, source and time.
25 updates.
25 updates shown
China State Railway Group announced that four high-speed rail segments will open on September 28: the Xiongan-Shangqiu section of the Beijing-Hong Kong HSR, the Xi'an-Ankang section of the Xi'an-Chongqing HSR, the Yichang-Xingshan HSR, and the Harbin-Yichun HSR. Travel times after opening: Xiongan-Shangqiu 2h27m, Xi'an East-Ankang West 45m, Yichang North-Xingshan 30m, Harbin-Yichun 1h46m.
Tongcheng Travel data shows that on September 25, the first day of the Mid-Autumn holiday, family visits and nearby vacations formed a travel peak. Cross-city orders departing the day before and on the day rose 18% versus the same period of this year's Dragon Boat Festival. Local and nearby bookings accounted for over 60% of the total, showing a two-stage pattern of returning home for reunion first and then vacationing nearby. Nearby scenic-spot ticket bookings rose 36% versus Dragon Boat day one, with gardens, ancient towns, cultural venues and theme parks most popular, and Chinese-style night tours especially hot. Hotel family-room bookings rose 21% year on year, and hotel-plus-scenario p…
With only three working days between Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day in 2026, the '3 days off for 13' leave strategy has created a super-long golden week, pushing the lodging market into an early booking boom. As of September 21, Huazhu Group data showed overall hotel booking rates for September 25 to October 7 rose about 2 percentage points year on year, with room nights up 22%. Top 10 first- and second-tier cities include Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing; top 10 third- and fourth-tier destinations include Luoyang, Yangzhou and Guilin; top 10 county destinations include Jiuzhaigou, Yangshuo and Antu.
China's inbound tourism has continued to heat up this year, with foreign visitors spending actively. Visits to Beijing's Hongqiao Market, Silk Street and Wangfujing Dong'an Market found tech products and custom clothing favored, while commercial areas improved multilingual guides and departure tax refund services. Hongqiao Market averaged 8,000 daily visitors from January to July, with about 5,600 foreign visitors daily, roughly 70%. Silk Street recorded about 2 billion yuan in inbound visitor sales in the first half, hosted about 30,000 inbound tour groups and received over 160 groups daily. A centralized instant tax refund point recently opened at Hongqiao Market.
China's newly released Measures on Promoting RV Consumption call for strengthening RV tourism product supply and management services and implementing RV consumption promotion actions. Industry players said they will advance implementation based on local conditions. In Qiaojia County, Yunnan, more than 8,000 RVs from over 30 provinces entered last year; the county plans to integrate RV living with dining, homestays, agricultural products and sports events. Companies including CTS Self-Driving and Hainan Huatie Fengtu plan to integrate rental and destination resources, advance credit-based deposit waivers and one-way returns, and launch customized insurance. Experts suggest building a tiered…
The Sichuan Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism held a video conference on the 100-day 'Thunder' tourism market rectification campaign, officially launching the action. The meeting focused on addressing tour guide misconduct and forced consumption, requiring efforts to reduce complaints at travel agencies, scenic areas and museums, and improving systems for immediate complaint handling, local resolution and full-process supervision. Chengdu, Deyang, Meishan, Ziyang, Leshan, Garze, Aba and Liangshan signed a cross-regional strategic cooperation agreement at the main venue.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued the 15th Five-Year Plan for Building a Tourism Power, naming Changshu a 'Featured Tourism Destination,' the only county-level city in Jiangsu selected. Changshu launched the 'Mountain-Water-City Autumn Festival' series, including Shajiabang's 27th Hairy Crab Food Season and Reed Art Week, Shanghu's autumn national-trend activities, a puppet carnival and immersive night tours. The Shajiabang Revolutionary History Memorial Hall launched an AR smart guide system, and the Yushan Eagle Line opened a Baoyan upward entrance. Changshu Confucian Temple and Weng Tonghe Memorial Hall offer free admission October 1-3, and theater ticket stubs grant 30% off som…
The 2026 Beijing Culture Forum, themed 'Cultural Heritage and Mutual Learning Among Civilizations,' was held in Beijing on September 22-23, with over 600 guests from 44 countries and regions. Discussions covered systematic heritage protection, international cooperation and ancient capital preservation. Beijing presented its regulatory planning system and Central Axis protection experience. National Cultural Heritage Administration data showed 7,188 registered museums in 2025, over 91% free to enter, receiving 1.56 billion visits, with national archaeological site parks increasing to 65. Participants also discussed heritage utilization, technology empowerment and balancing tourism developmen…
Accor is not pursuing a single Asia strategy but several market-specific expansion models. In China, the hotel giant is leaning on H World to help double its footprint to 1,600 hotels. In India, it is looking for new partners. In Vietnam, major developers are driving an unexpected surge in signings. Across the region, conversions and franchising are increasingly helping Accor tap into existing hotel supply. Duncan O'Rourke, Accor's CEO for Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific, said China, India and Vietnam are very big for the company, but the development models to capture those opportunities are markedly different.
The Jing'an International Reception Hall on Nanjing West Road in Shanghai, converted from the former Shanghai city air terminal, reopened on 28 September 2025 with a 24-hour self-service area on the ground floor where residents and domestic and international travellers can handle Hong Kong and Macao travel endorsements and foreign-currency exchange. The venue combines talent services, cross-border data services, corporate outbound services and foreign-national facilitation services, and offers foreign-related rights guidance and inbound-tourism advice, working with a Jing'an District People's Procuratorate workstation on intellectual-property protection for cultural and tourism firms.
On 24 September, the Market Management Department of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued a work notice requiring local culture and tourism authorities to strengthen consultation and assessment, focus on small and medium rivers, slopes and gorges, and flash-flood gullies, strictly implement 'call-and-response' early-warning mechanisms with follow-up feedback, and promptly evacuate visitors from danger zones. According to the National Meteorological Centre, the Mid-Autumn holiday will bring heavy rain from western China to the Huang-Huai region, with rain and weak cold air in the northeast and northern north China; parts of Sichuan, Chongqing, Shaanxi, Hubei, Henan, Jiangsu, Anhui and…
On September 24, the State Council Information Office held a press conference. Zhou Zhaohua, Deputy Director of the State Post Bureau, said that express delivery services for the cultural and tourism industry are moving from 'behind-the-scenes support' to 'front-stage experience'. The State Post Bureau is building integrated 'travel-shopping-shipping' scenarios, setting up convenient delivery points and smart lockers in popular scenic spots, cultural districts, transport hubs, and even key hotels, offering luggage delivery services. Currently, 883 theme post offices have been built nationwide, with coverage of 5A scenic spots exceeding 63%. Tourists can stamp commemorative postmarks at the…
At the 2026 Hangzhou Yunqi Conference, Fliggy and Alibaba Cloud Bailian announced the industry's first travel AI hackathon, open to all individual developers, with outstanding works and developers receiving token subsidies, expert coaching and commercial ecosystem resources. The two-month event has preset topics including hotel staycations, destination exploration, AI private guides and inbound-travel assistants, plus an open track. It is built on Fliggy's AI open platform and flyai skill, giving developers access to price and inventory data across flights, hotels, tickets, car services and destination activities, with Alibaba Cloud Bailian providing models and workflows.
On September 23, Huazhu Club, China Merchants Bank and Mastercard launched Huazhu Club's first co-branded credit card in Shanghai. The card has no annual fee for the first year and waives the second-year fee after six transactions; everyday spending earns Huazhu Club points redeemable for room charges, and meeting monthly spending targets earns up to 20,000 points plus a Gold membership trial. Huazhu Group has over 1.26 million rooms, ranking fourth globally, and Huazhu Club has over 300 million members with the world's highest member density per room.
In the first half of this year, listed Chinese OTAs continued to grow overall, but the growth logic is changing. Ctrip's net revenue was RMB 31.871 billion, up 11.15% year on year, while net profit attributable to shareholders fell to RMB 4.1 million due to an antitrust penalty. Tongcheng Travel's revenue was RMB 9.993 billion, up 10.5%, with net profit of RMB 1.411 billion, up 7.67%. Tuniu's net revenue was about RMB 272 million, up 7.58%, but profitability came under pressure. Ctrip is betting on international business, with inbound tourism orders up 95% year on year in H1 and international platform revenue growth exceeding 50% in Q2. Tongcheng Travel expanded into hotel management and hi…
Tourism Fiji has launched four Chinese-language travel guides — for family holidays, couples, solo travellers and groups — now available on its Chinese official website. Designed around the main travel scenarios of Chinese visitors, they cover accommodation-type comparisons, regional features, experience recommendations and pre-trip planning, and can be used for industry partner training and client communication as well as by independent travellers. The group guide focuses on corporate incentive travel and wedding celebrations. Tourism Fiji data show 20,500 Chinese visitors from January to August this year, up 5.25% year on year.
On September 24, the State Council Information Office held a press conference under the "Starting the 15th Five-Year Plan" series. Miao Muyang, Director of the Industry Development Department of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, said that during the 15th Five-Year Plan period the ministry will advance deep integration of culture, tourism and technology, deepen digital and intelligent technology applications, and focus on three areas: technological innovation, scenario application and standards development. Measures include supporting R&D of key technologies such as extended reality and intelligent interaction, building high-quality industry datasets, deploying AI application pilots, stre…
On 24 September, the State Council Information Office held a briefing on transport service arrangements for the Mid-Autumn and National Day holidays. Li Yang, spokesperson and vice minister of the Ministry of Transport, said six cruise ships will operate 14 voyages across Shanghai, Tianjin and Shenzhen during the holiday period. No-destination sea cruises have grown quickly this year, with three rounds already run: Adora Magic City carried 4,000 passengers on its first sailing in Shanghai in June, and Ideal operated two voyages in Tianjin in August, with 2,700 passengers on the first. The product is a 3-day, 2-night coastal cruise without land calls, aimed mainly at younger travellers and f…
With only three days between this year's Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday, the 'take 3 days off for 13 days' leave strategy has gone viral, pushing hotel bookings into a peak period. Meituan data show Shaanxi's overall culture and tourism bookings rose 50% year on year during the holiday, with hotel and homestay bookings up 49%. Gao Wen, manager of Xi'an Yaman Oriental Courtyard Hotel, said Mid-Autumn was the hottest period, with occupancy near 80% on Sept 25-26, while the National Day peak shifted to Oct 2-3. Platform data show users booking flights to two or more destinations rose 70% year on year. Hoteliers report a rising share of 4-5 night stays, with both average spend and…
The recently released Several Measures on Promoting RV Consumption proposes, in its section on strengthening RV campground construction, to coordinate and guarantee space for RV campgrounds in national spatial planning and include them in the 'one map' for natural resource management and national spatial planning; encourage revitalizing inefficient idle resources to build public RV campgrounds; promote RV campgrounds in qualified scenic areas, resorts and along scenic byways; and improve standards and advance rating management in an orderly manner. Yunnan, Baishan in Jilin, Dongping in Shandong and Bijie in Guizhou have proposed implementation measures, including revitalizing idle stations,…
On the evening of 23 September, the 2026 Hakka (Meizhou) Intangible Heritage Week opened at Meizhou Academician Square in Guangdong under the theme 'Moon over the Hakka Capital, Heritage Reunion'. It is hosted by the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Association, the Guangdong Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism and the Meizhou Municipal People's Government. The programme combines an opening ceremony, performances, seminars and markets, featuring Puzhai fire dragon, lion dance, cup-flower dance and Guangdong Han opera, Wuhua tea-picking opera, marionette shows and Hakka mountain opera. Meizhou released new heritage-themed tourism routes and signed cooperation agreements…
The State Council Information Office held a September 23 press conference on civil affairs development during the 15th Five-Year Plan. Vice Minister of Civil Affairs Shu Huihao said the ministry has advanced the Rural Place-Name Initiative since 2023, standardizing 927,000 rural place names, installing 32 million place-name signs and door plates, and having internet map platforms standardize more than 12 million rural place names and points of interest. During the 15th Five-Year Plan, the initiative will be expanded and upgraded, extending the full chain of naming, signage, data collection and mapping, deepening integration of standard place-name services with delivery logistics, livelihood…
Booking data from multiple travel companies show changed travel rhythms and preferences for the 2026 Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday: earlier departures, longer itineraries, deeper experiences and farther destinations. Tuniu data show that among users whose trips span Oct 1-7, over 35% departed before the National Day holiday and over 10% left before Mid-Autumn to avoid the first peak on Sept 25. Meituan data show over half of travellers chose to depart before Sept 30. Ctrip data show cross-province travel rose to 82% during the National Day golden week. Tongcheng data show bookings for domestic long-haul flights over 1,200 km rose 34% year on year, outbound travel search heat…
From 25 September, the exhibition 'Resplendent Imperial Vessels, Glorious Revival: Beijing Cloisonne Court Art' will open in the East Zone 2 gallery of the Prince Gong's Mansion Museum, co-hosted by the museum under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Beijing Enamel Factory Co., Ltd. It displays replicas of representative Yuan, Ming and Qing cloisonne objects and nearly 58 original works by contemporary master craftspeople. Three sections trace the craft's development, and the exhibition runs until 6 December, closed on Mondays. Master lectures and hands-on craft experiences will also be offered during the run.
On September 23, Tongcheng Travel's international platform HopeGoo launched the 2026 "Hi Zhejiang" Hangzhou inbound-travel consumption vouchers, its first time distributing a government-led inbound-travel voucher program. Foreign and Hong Kong/Macau/Taiwan users can claim hotel and attraction ticket vouchers via the HopeGoo app: 20% off hotel bookings over RMB 210, capped at RMB 210 off, and 20% off attraction tickets, capped at RMB 60 off. Vouchers are valid for seven days from claim, with one per category per user. The first batch runs from September 23 to December 25, 2026, for stays and visits through December 31, 2026.