China’s May Holiday 2026 Travel News Roundup

Flight bookings to Kenya on OTA Qunar for the 2026 May holiday more than doubled year-on-year. Photo by sutirta budiman on Unsplash

China’s May Labor Day holiday is one of the longest national public holidays of the year, with five days off from 1-5 May. We’ve rounded up and translated all the news and reports on Chinese outbound travel during this time. Overall, domestic travel grew more significantly than outbound travel, with outbound trips similar to last year’s level – despite the threat of flight cancellations, increased flight prices, and other impacts from the Iran war. Some long-haul destinations saw healthy year-on-year increases in Chinese bookings, particularly in Europe and Africa.

The holiday proved especially popular for domestic tourism, particularly for road trips combining several Chinese cities. Domestically, Chinese travelers made more than 1.5 billion cross-regional trips, around 8% higher than last year. A number of cultural events around the country, such as music festivals, drew significant visitor numbers. Family travelers were the most prominent market segment, according to reports from Chinese travel agencies.

There were a total of 11,279,000 border crossings recorded during the holiday period, a year-on-year increase of 3.5%. Border crossings into mainland China by foreigners increased by 12.5% during this time, so the remaining border crossings – made by mainland residents and those with passports from Hong Kong/Macao/Taiwan, were up by just 2.47%.

While there were some flight cancellations between China and Southeast Asia, especially by AirAsia and Air China, data from DAST Flight Manager shows a strong increase in flight capacity to the region during the holiday period, with 13.5% more flight volume to Thailand, 24.9% to Malaysia, 28.6% more to Indonesia, and 26.5% more to the Philippines. Some European destinations also saw greatly increased flight capacity from China since last year, with a 32% increase for Spain, 60% increase for Belgium, and 20% for the Netherlands. At the same time, flight capacity between China and Japan was down by 55.2% year on year.

OTA Qunar reported that the outbound destinations with the biggest year-on-year increases in flight bookings (pictured, above) were: South Africa (+180%), Belgium (+160%), Uzebekistan (+122%), Kenya (+111%), Kazakhstan (+96%), Brazil (+95%), Indonesia (+77%), New Zealand (+72%), Italy (+70%) and Austria (+56%). Qunar’s top 10 outbound destinations for the holiday were: Thailand, South Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Macao, Australia, Indonesia, and the US. The OTA also reported that outbound bookings grew most significantly for travelers aged 19-22 (+30%) and 23-30 (+18%).

Tuniu reported that short-haul destinations were most popular during the holiday. The long-haul tours that sold best were: 13 days in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany; 10 days in Türkiye; 12 days in Spain and Portugal; 14 days in Germany, France, Italy, and Switzerland; and 10 days in Kenya.

Travel website Mafengwo reported that the top outbound destinations were: Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, South Korea, Italy, Türkiye, and New Zealand.

WeChat reported that the top five outbound destinations for WeChat Pay usage were Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea, Thailand, and Malaysia. WeChat Pay transaction volumes by mainland Chinese travelers in South Korea increased by 150% year on year, and transaction volumes increased by 140% in Malaysia.