“3+3＞6”: “Spring Break + Qingming” innovative combination activates a new engine for holiday consumption

The 2026 Qingming holiday coincides with spring break for primary and middle schools in many regions, creating a “3+3” six-day連休 “Spring Day mini-holiday.” This innovative holiday combination of “spring break + Qingming” not only heats up the tourism market, but also extends consumption into multiple sectors such as dining and retail, releasing consumer vitality to an even greater extent.

According to data from the Ministry of Transport, during the three-day Qingming holiday from April 4 to 6, the total cross-regional person-flow across the whole society reached 845.38M person-trips, averaging 281.79M person-trips per day, up 6% year-on-year from the same period last year. Data from the Ministry of Commerce indicates that during the Qingming holiday, the average daily sales revenue of key retail and catering companies across the country increased 2.4% year-on-year. Among 78 pedestrian streets (business districts) under key monitoring, the passenger flow volume and sales revenue increased 6.0% and 6.7% year-on-year, respectively.

Industry experts believe that the innovative holiday combination of “Qingming + spring break” precisely captures the traditional consumption lull window lasting two months after the Spring Festival and before Labor Day. Not only does it directly lengthen people’s travel radius and time spent, but more importantly, it generates a complete consumption chain—from “parent-child long-distance travel” to “destination dining and retail,” and then to “cultural experiences and digital upgrades”—whose combined pull effect far exceeds that of a single Qingming holiday.

Zhang Yu, chief economist at Huachuang Securities, told Interface News that with support from spring break policies, in pilot provinces the outbound travel growth rate has clearly outperformed the broader market. Long-distance travel and parent-child demand are accelerating in release, inbound tourism also continues to run hot, and the popularity of non-traditional tourism destinations and cultural tourism consumption is rising.

The Ctrip Research Institute points out that this spring break pilot can further contribute additional increment to domestic outbound travel consumption. Considering that implementation will be carried out in a dispersed manner nationwide by region, total domestic outbound travel spending is expected to reach 60 billion yuan, which may exceed the overall domestic outbound travel spending level during Qingming 2025. This is comparable to adding a “small Golden Week,” and at the same time it is expected to drive growth in the added value of related industries by more than 250 billion yuan, directly supporting employment in related sectors such as hotels, dining, transportation, and scenic spots, and continuing to contribute additional increment to growth in domestic demand.

Spring break becomes a new engine for holiday consumption, with pilot provinces showing clear growth

As the biggest structural highlight of this holiday, the連休 model of “spring break + Qingming” effectively extends the travel radius, making pilot provinces the absolute main force driving overall outbound travel growth.

Jiangsu, Sichuan, Anhui, Guizhou, and other regions have scheduled this year’s spring break from April 1 to 3, connecting it with the Qingming holiday to form a six-day mini-holiday. The extension of the holiday significantly boosted regional culture and tourism consumption, and travel popularity in spring-break provinces has surged far ahead of the national broader market.

According to China Mobile data, the share of cross-province trips in spring-break regions accounts for 54%, up 12 percentage points from the same period last year.

Also, according to the “2026 Spring Break and Qingming Holiday Tourism Summary Report” released by Tongcheng Travel, among the source markets with spring break arrangements, overall domestic travel booking heat increased by an average of 130% month-on-month, exceeding the broader market increase by 30 percentage points. Tongcheng Research Institute believes that this Qingming holiday has validated the huge potential of the “staggered leave + traditional holiday” combination model to stimulate consumption.

Yi Rong, an analyst at Huatai Securities, told Interface News that the spring break layered on top of the Qingming holiday concentrates and releases travel demand, and residents’ travel radius expands noticeably year-on-year. At the same time, the combined effect of spring break and Qingming extends the holiday and helps warm overall Qingming tourism demand, with the share of parent-child trips and family-type travel increasing.

“Family travel has become the main source of additional consumption during this round of holiday tourism, and parent-child trips, family trips, and multi-generation traveling features are relatively prominent. According to Tongcheng data, the share of parent-child travel in Qingming trips is close to 25%, up noticeably compared with previous years, and more than 60% of families choose 4–5 day itineraries. Meanwhile, booking heat for themed amusement parks, museums, botanical gardens and zoological gardens, science popularization education scenic spots, and study-and-research programs has increased.” Yi Rong said.

Inbound and outbound tourism performs remarkably well; domestic trips extend from flower viewing and countryside outings to experience-based consumption

Unlike previous years when Qingming travel was mainly short-distance flower viewing, this year, jointly formed by family long-distance travel, inbound tourism, and experience-based consumption in non-traditional destinations, has become the new engine of growth.

Before the holiday, the National Immigration Administration forecast that during this year’s Qingming holiday, the average daily number of inbound and outbound persons expected at national ports would exceed 2.3 million person-trips, up 11.1% from the same period last year. Platform data shows that inbound tourism heat is higher than that of outbound tourism. According to Ctrip statistics, the number of inbound tourism orders during the Qingming holiday increased by nearly 90% year-on-year. Consumer spending growth among European tourists is evident. Compared with 2025, the order consumption amounts of inbound users from Russia and Spain increased by more than 1.5 times; the consumption growth for inbound users from Italy and the Netherlands ranges from 80% to 150%.

Zhang Yu noted that the Qingming holiday has become an emerging time node for inbound tourism, and the continued momentum of visa facilitation and “China Travel” popularity is driving the ongoing growth of inbound tourism order growth rates.

Yi Rong added that during the mini-holiday, inbound and outbound tourism performed remarkably well, possibly due to China’s tourism “extreme value for money,” alongside factors such as the overlap between this year’s Qingming and overseas Easter holiday periods.

From the perspective of domestic travel, the popularity of non-traditional tourism destinations and culture-and-tourism consumption is rising, and the main travel line has extended from flower viewing and spring outings to experience-based consumption.

In terms of travel activities, traditional flower viewing and spring outings still form the main line—scenic areas such as Slender West Lake, Mount Huangshan, the Humble Administrator’s Garden, Wuyuan Huangling, and Yuantou Zhu, as well as mountain-and-water gardens and flower-viewing attractions are among the top performers. At the same time, consumption demand has increased in parallel for cultural relics and museum visits, immersive cultural performances, tea-plantation sightseeing, light outdoor activities, and consumption demand centered on local seasonal food and drink.

Judging from hotel bookings and destination heat, platform data shows that traditional popular cities such as Beijing, Hangzhou, and Shanghai maintain relatively high levels of demand and optimism. Hotel bookings for traditional leisure vacation destinations such as Haikou and Sanya increased by more than 40% year-on-year. Tourism bookings for non-traditional popular destinations such as Hainan Wenchang, Xinjiang Bortala, and Yunnan Pu’er all have growth rates exceeding 100%.

Digital technology empowers consumption deeply; the benefits of the “trade-in and upgrade” policy stand out

Digital technology not only reshapes consumption scenarios, but also works in tandem with the “trade-in and upgrade” policy. Particularly in the field of smart digital products, it has become a notable growth driver for stimulating domestic demand.

During the Qingming period, policy dividends for consumption of intelligent products have become prominent. According to Ministry of Commerce data, after the subsidies were expanded to include mobile phone and digital categories, the subsidy amount increased year-on-year. As of April 5, the total number of auto trade-ins and upgrades in 2026 received 1.53M subsidy claims, driving new car sales revenue of 246.8 billion yuan. Sales of home appliances trade-in and upgrade, as well as digital and smart purchase-new products reached 62.85M units, driving sales revenue of 215.97 billion yuan. Ministry of Commerce data shows that sales revenue of key platforms’ smart glasses and smart watches/smart bracelets increased 3.2 times and 12.3%, respectively.

An industry insider told Interface News that this year, e-commerce platforms rolled out promotional activities such as a “Qingming Spring Outing Season,” speeding up the integration of online and offline. The “Chinese Cloud Ancestor Worship” platform has been upgraded, with 8K ultra-high-definition and VR panoramic technologies enabling online roaming of more than 30 core scenic spots. Digital technologies such as AI, VR, and big data have further been integrated into consumption across all scenarios, making the integrated consumption system for online traffic generation and offline monetization increasingly complete.

The source analyzed that in the future, industries such as retail, catering, and culture and tourism will rely on digitalization to achieve precise matching of supply and demand, further improving consumption efficiency and the quality of the experience.