China News Service, Beijing, May 7 (Reporter Liu Wenwen) During the 2026 May Day holiday, China's cultural and tourism market was generally stable and orderly. The reporter learned from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism on the 7th that during the May Day holiday, there were 325 million domestic trips across the country, a year-on-year increase of 3.6%; the total domestic travel expenditure was 185.492 billion yuan (RMB, the same below), a year-on-year increase of 2.9%.
During the May Day holiday, cultural and tourism industries flourished across the country. Tourist attractions, resorts, leisure streets, and cultural and museum venues have a large flow of tourists, and scenic spots such as the Forbidden City in Beijing, Shanghai Disneyland, Nanjing Confucius Temple, Hangzhou West Lake, and Guangzhou Chimelong are highly popular. Nighttime cultural and tourism consumption is active, and the national-level nighttime culture and tourism consumption cluster has a cumulative nighttime passenger flow of 80.4137 million, a year-on-year increase of 6.44%.
On May 3, in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, tourists enjoyed an artistic performance in the Confucius Temple scenic area. During the May Day holiday, tourist attractions in Nanjing are very popular. Photo by China News Service reporter Yang Bo
During the holidays, the experience scenes are diverse and the consumption structure is upgraded. Traditional cultural projects are transformed into immersive experiences, and intangible cultural heritage skills, folk festivals, etc. attract tourists. Technology empowers cultural tourism experiences, and automobile factories, trendy cultural and creative industries, and AI special exhibitions have become new hot spots. Concerts, music festivals, and sports events drive cultural and tourism consumption. There were 32,000 commercial performances (excluding entertainment venues) held across the country, with box office revenue of 2.476 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.66%.
In order to further stimulate consumption vitality, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism launched the "May 1st" Culture and Tourism Consumption Week and the "5.19 China Tourism Day" theme month activities. About 13,700 cultural and tourism consumption activities were held in various places, more than 284 million yuan in consumer vouchers were issued, and measures to benefit the people were introduced such as ticket exemptions and discounts on combined tickets. Beijing, Hunan, Shaanxi and other places continue to improve entry facilitation measures to enhance the experience of inbound tourists. (End)
