The National Day holiday has ended, and a fresh holiday consumption "heat map" has just been released: travel enthusiasm is spreading from major cities to small county towns, with searches related to "county trips" surging month-on-month; sports events are deeply integrated with holiday scenarios, making "event watching plus vacation" a new way for young people to plan their time off; in addition, the effects of the consumer goods trade-in policy continue to be released, and AI smart consumption is accelerating from a novelty to a standard.
Experts believe that the booming cultural tourism market and the warming of smart consumption are not only standout highlights of holiday consumption but also important directions for expanding domestic demand. Continued precise policy support will provide strong backing for consumption expansion and quality improvement in the fourth quarter and even over a longer period.
Cultural Tourism Consumption: County Trips Gain Popularity, Event Watching and Vacationing Heat Up
"Moonlight before my bed, perhaps frost on the ground..." During the National Day holiday, at the Li Bai Former Residence scenic area in Jiangyou City, Mianyang, Sichuan, tourist Li Changwei and his son recited "Quiet Night Thoughts" together in front of the stone inscriptions. Following in the footsteps of the poet immortal, watching "Happy Li Bai" at the Fantawild Oriental Heritage park, then slurping a bowl of Jiangyou fatty intestines and tasting a cup of Houttuynia tea - a city full of poetic charm and bustling life became the most vivid footnote for Jiangyou, a "hidden gem small city," during this holiday.
This National Day holiday, small cities were no longer just places to pass through. "County trips" became a new growth point for National Day tourism consumption. Data from Mafengwo shows that searches for "county trips" surged 238% month-on-month; Ctrip data shows that among scenic spot orders from eastern travelers, the share going to third-tier and lower-tier cities rose from about 20% in 2024 to about 47%; Qunar data shows that hotel booking heat in county towns increased 35% year-on-year.
A series of competitions is also linking accommodation, dining, and city sightseeing into more consumption scenarios, adding further fuel to holiday consumption. Serbian tennis star Djokovic returned to the China Open after 11 years, and on the evening of October 4, the Diamond Court at the National Tennis Center in Beijing had an attendance rate of 99.2%. Meituan data shows that during the National Day period, searches for "hotels near the National Tennis Center" increased more than 200% year-on-year.
During the holiday, Chengdu also hosted events such as the International Youth Football Elite Tournament; Suzhou not only had popular events such as the "Su Super League" in full swing but also simultaneously issued a considerable scale of hotel and travel consumption vouchers, with hotel booking heat on some platforms increasing more than 20% year-on-year. The driving effect of service consumption became further evident. Big data from the Ministry of Commerce shows that from October 1 to 6, foot traffic and revenue at 78 pedestrian streets and business districts monitored by the Ministry of Commerce increased 2.5% and 4.7% year-on-year, respectively.
Industry insiders believe that the continuity of travel enthusiasm during the National Day holiday is worth watching. Data from GZL Travel under Lingnan Holdings shows that after the holiday, registrations for cross-provincial autumn viewing, tourist trains, and health and wellness long-stay products are strong, which is expected to absorb market traffic and allow holiday travel enthusiasm to continue. Sinolink Securities judges that the effect of the long double-holiday period, combined with the expansion of "autumn vacations" in multiple provinces in the fourth quarter, is expected to support fourth-quarter prosperity through staggered demand.
Goods Consumption: Trade-ins Show Results, AI Smart Products Lead
Beyond the cultural tourism market, goods consumption was also vigorous. Big data from the Ministry of Commerce shows that from October 1 to 6, consumer goods trade-ins benefited 6.392 million person-times and drove sales of 33.48 billion yuan. Structural changes were even more striking. Suning.com data shows that from October 1 to 7, foot traffic at core stores nationwide increased 50% year-on-year, sales of AI smart home appliances increased more than 40% year-on-year, and the share of AI product sales exceeded 70% for the first time, becoming the main force in trade-in upgrades. JD MALL data also shows that smart home appliances and green home appliances became consumers' top choices for "renewal," with smart home appliance sales accounting for 60% in its first round of holiday consumption data.
"From novelty concepts to universal benefits for all, AI products are accelerating into the industry's main upgrade line by solving pain points in real scenarios and deeply integrating into household life routines," said Ni Zhihua, general manager of the sales management center of Suning.com direct-operated stores. It is worth noting that the boundaries of smart upgrades are extending to county areas and elderly-friendly scenarios. During the long holiday, many young people returning home replaced old appliances for their parents, bringing convenient smart living back to rural areas. From platform and store data, water purifiers, washer-dryer sets, and dishwashers have gradually become quality necessities for county households from popular urban categories; sales of floor scrubbers, micro-steam-bake all-in-one machines, and built-in kitchen appliances suitable for large courtyard homes even doubled year-on-year; elderly-friendly home appliances and digital products also saw new growth, with demand continuing to rise for smart health products such as large-screen TVs with large subtitles, simple smart door locks, and low-sugar rice cookers.
Policy Support: Clear Coordinates for Expanding Domestic Demand, Ample Momentum for Quality Improvement
Behind the National Day consumption boom is continued policy support. Before the National Day holiday, the National Development and Reform Commission, together with the Ministry of Finance, issued to local governments the fourth batch of 62.5 billion yuan in ultra-long special treasury bonds this year to support consumer goods trade-ins. So far, the full-year 250 billion yuan in consumer goods trade-in funds has been fully allocated. The establishment of a medium- and long-term framework is also noteworthy. The "15th Five-Year Plan for Expanding Consumption" released in July this year made clear that by 2030, total retail sales of consumer goods should reach about 60 trillion yuan, and made systematic arrangements around specific areas such as expanding service consumption and upgrading goods consumption.
Refined policies are also being accelerated and improved. On the goods side, the implementation opinions of the Ministry of Commerce and six other departments on promoting the expansion and upgrading of goods consumption further clarified the cultivation of trillion-yuan-level markets such as green consumption, smart consumption, and health consumption; on the service side, the work plan for accelerating the cultivation of new growth points in service consumption and the 2026 work plan for service consumption quality improvement and benefits for the people were introduced one after another, focusing on key areas and potential areas to accelerate the cultivation of new growth points in service consumption.
Hong Yong, associate researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce, believes these policy arrangements have clear layers. "Bulk durable goods shore up the basic foundation, focusing on releasing existing renewal demand; service consumption is improving quality and expanding capacity, activating daily consumption vitality through quality and brands; green, smart, and health consumption focus on new growth points and shoulder the task of cultivating trillion-yuan-level markets."
Experts believe that the most noteworthy signal from the National Day holiday consumer market is not only growth speed but also structural direction. "Behind cultural tourism is the expansion of service consumption, behind home appliances is the upgrade toward smart and green products, and at the policy level, clear coordinates have been drawn for these two main lines," Hong Yong said. As related supporting policies are gradually refined and implemented and application scenarios continue to extend to subdivided needs such as county areas and elderly-friendly use, the role of consumption as the "main engine" of economic growth is expected to become further prominent in the fourth quarter.