Chinese New Year Travel: 2026 Results

Host to the 2026 Winter Olympics, Italy saw significant growth in Chinese tourism across multiple online travel platforms. Photo by Egor Gordeev on Unsplash

The Chinese New Year holiday was longer than ever in 2026, with a nine-day public holiday from 15-23 February – and many travelers may still be taking extended trips through the last week of February, especially to long-haul destinations.

We’ve rounded up and translated all the news and reports on Chinese outbound travel during the holiday so far, and will update this post as more information is released.

Overall Market and Growth
According to China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, travelers made a total of 596 million domestic trips over the Chinese New Year holiday (15-23 February), 95 million more than last year and a new historical high.

In terms of international travel, the National Immigration Authority recorded 9,514,000 border crossings (outbound and inbound) by mainland Chinese citizens during the holiday period, with a daily average 10.2% higher than in 2025.

Fliggy’s outbound bookings for flights, hotels, and activities overseas all increased by more than 30% year on year. Similarly, travel website Mafengwo reported that outbound reservations increased by close to 30% compared to last year. In their pre-holiday report released on 10 January, leading Chinese car rental platform said that demand for overseas car rentals was up by 16.3% year on year.

Top Outbound Destinations

According to OTA Tongcheng’s post-holiday report, the majority of outbound trips were to destinations within a 5-hour flight-time from China, with top destinations including South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Hong, Macau, and Indonesia. Tongcheng’s top long-haul destinations were Italy, Spain, Australia, UK, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Mexico, Türkiye, and France.

Fliggy reported that Thailand was the no. 1 holiday destination, with Hong Kong, Macao, and other Southeast Asian countries also popular.

Tuniu’s top 10 outbound destinations were: Maldives, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, and Egypt.

Qunar’s top cities for Chinese New Year trips in 2026 were: Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul, Phuket, Ho Chi Minh City, Bali, Sydney, and Chiang Mai. Meanwhile, the OTA’s top countries for hotel reservations were: Thailand, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Russia, Macau, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Spain, and Australia.

Mafengwo’s top destinations were: Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Türkiye, South Korea, Australia, Italy, and New Zealand.

Zuzuche’s report, released just before the holiday, said that the top 10 countries for car rentals were: New Zealand, Australia, Norway, Italy, Spain, Thailand, UAE, Iceland, Malaysia, and the UK.

Growth Markets

Fliggy reported that Chinese New Year travel to Oman, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Qatar, and Argentina all increased by more than 200% year on year.

Tuniu’s top 10 growth destinations were: Brunei, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Fiji, Netherlands, Greece, Belgium, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia.

Qunar’s top 10 growth destinations were: Kazakhstan (+310%), Uzbekistan (+260%), Oman (+220%), South Africa (+200%), Brazil (+200%), Malta (+170%), Poland (+160%), Mauritius (+150%), Argentina (+140%), and Norway (130%).

As reported in Chinese media, Zuzuche’s holiday results showed the fastest growth for South America, where rentals doubled from 2025. Car rentals in Chile were up by 218% year on year, with Argentina up by 246%. Oman was Asia’s biggest dark horse, with car rentals up by 218%. Car rentals in South Africa increased by 144%.

Mafengwo reported a 235% year-on-year growth in trips to newly visa-free Türkiye.

Italy: The Winter Olympics Champion

As host to the 2026 Winter Olympics and benefiting from strong air connectivity with China, Italy got a big boost this Chinese New Year. Tongcheng said that hotel bookings in Italian cities including Milan and Venice increased by more than 200% year on year. Meanwhile, both Fliggy and Tuniu reported that travel to Italy nearly doubled this year, while Mafengwo reported an even bigger 310% increase. Fliggy said they had twice as many car rentals in Italy this Chinese New Year, while Italy also ranked in Tuniu’s top 10 list for self-driving countries. The top Italian destinations, according to Tuniu, were Milan, Rome, Venice, Florence, and Naples.

AI Takes Off

AI-assisted bookings on Fliggy were up by 800% this Chinese New Year, with attraction ticket bookings through AI more than 24 times higher than last year. However, as Fliggy’s AI assistant was only officially launched in April 2025, we would expect these large increases from a very low baseline last year.

Tongcheng also reported a huge increase in AI queries – similarly to Fliggy, Tongcheng’s DeepSeek-integrated chatbot, DeepTrip, was introduced around a year ago, and after Chinese New Year 2025. 57.4% of queries on DeepTrip were about transportation tickets, with 20% about attraction tickets, and 12.9% about local New Year customs. Tongcheng’s report explained that users (mostly under 30 years old) were using AI to familiarize themselves with local culture and customs during the holiday.