美团：中秋国庆机票预订量增44% 长线游与“跳城游”升温

The core travel trends and practical guidance for the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday period can serve as a direct reference for consumers planning their trips.

1. Key travel trends: Data from Meituan shows that flight bookings for the combined holiday period are up 44% year over year. Bookings for long-haul flights covering over 2,000 kilometers rose 76% YoY, accounting for more than a quarter of total flight reservations. The number of users booking flights to two or more destinations climbed 70% YoY, while bookings for combined flight and high-speed rail itineraries connecting multiple cities increased 14% YoY. Long-haul travel and multi-stop "city-hopping" itineraries have emerged as the dominant travel patterns this holiday season.

2. Timing guidance for departures: September 10 to 17 marked the peak booking window for flights. Nearly 20% of travelers plan to depart the day before the Mid-Autumn Festival, and over 50% will set off before September 30. Most travelers prefer to depart early to avoid peak travel crowds, reserving the full holiday period for on-the-ground travel experiences.

3. Practical service tips: Meituan has launched a range of combined flight and high-speed rail itinerary options, allowing users to compare choices based on price, total travel time, transfer intervals, and stopover duration to select the optimal plan. The platform will continue expanding its multi-modal transport product offerings to lower the planning barrier for multi-destination trips, and travelers may also consider integrating stopover segments into their overall travel experience plans.

Meituan’s release of Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday travel data clearly maps new trends in cultural and tourism consumption, providing data-backed support for business decision-making among culture, tourism, and mobility brands.

1. Shifts in user behavior: Travelers’ trip radii have expanded significantly this holiday season, moving beyond traditional round-trip travel between two points toward segmented, multi-stop journeys. Bookings from users traveling to multiple destinations are up 70% YoY; rather than treating transit segments as wasted travel time, travelers now integrate these stops into their overall travel experience, driving surging popularity for "city-hopping" itineraries.

2. High-growth consumption flows: Ten cities including Chengdu, Beijing, and Shanghai rank at the top of search and booking lists. Search volume for intercity flights between first-tier cities, such as Beijing-Shanghai and Beijing-Guangzhou, rose more than 45% YoY. Long-haul destinations including Xinjiang and Yunnan have seen explosive demand growth: flight bookings from Shanghai to Urumqi are up 235% YoY, while bookings from Shanghai and Beijing to Kunming rose 91% and 67% YoY respectively.

3. Implications for product development: User demand for multi-modal transport and multi-destination connected travel products has risen markedly. Brands can design multi-stop itineraries that integrate signature experiences in transit cities to align with evolving traveler preferences.

Meituan’s disclosed holiday travel data identifies clear growth directions for holiday travel consumption, highlighting business layout opportunities for tourism and travel sellers.

1. High-growth market opportunities: Demand in the long-haul travel segment has surged, with bookings for flights over 2,000 kilometers up 76% YoY. Bookings for tours, accommodation, and local experience services in long-haul destinations such as Xinjiang and Yunnan have seen notable increases. On representative long-haul routes like Shanghai-Urumqi, flight bookings more than tripled, signaling significant incremental growth potential for signature experience products in these destinations.

2. Shifts in consumer demand: "City-hopping" has emerged as a popular new travel format, with users booking multi-destination flights up 70% YoY and bookings for combined flight-high-speed rail multi-city itineraries up 14%. Travelers increasingly plan activities such as museum visits and short sightseeing trips in transit cities, driving clear growth in demand for segmented travel products.

3. Operational guidance: Sellers can reference the product logic of Meituan’s combined flight and rail offerings, integrating cross-transport and cross-city product bundles that include signature local experiences at transit stops, to reduce trip planning friction for users and align with new travel preferences.

Meituan’s holiday travel trend data provides demand forecasting and operational direction references for manufacturers of travel goods and cultural tourism merchandise.

1. Product design and production direction: Long-haul and city-hopping travel have grown sharply this holiday season, with trips over 2,000 kilometers accounting for more than a quarter of all travel. As users cover more cities per trip and spend longer time on the road, demand will rise for portable storage products, multi-scenario travel gear, travel comfort and relief items, as well as lightweight cultural and tourism merchandise easy to carry across cities.

2. Regional market opportunities: Ten core cities including Chengdu, Beijing, and Shanghai rank among the top destination lists, while long-haul destinations in Xinjiang and Yunnan saw the highest growth in flight bookings. There is substantial growth potential for production and inventory stocking of destination-specific cultural souvenirs and regional IP merchandise for these locations, and factories can partner with local tourism merchants in advance to secure orders.

3. Channel operation insights: Manufacturers can track traffic trends on travel and local life platforms such as Meituan, and design scenario-based product bundles tailored to multi-destination travel scenarios, matching the "one stop, one experience" consumption pattern of city-hopping travelers.

Meituan’s disclosed holiday travel trends clearly outline new dynamics in the cultural tourism and mobility industry, pointing to service optimization directions and user pain point solutions for travel service providers.

1. New industry trends: Travelers’ trip radii have expanded notably in line with the longer holiday period, with long-haul trips accounting for over a quarter of total travel. "City-hopping" has emerged as a popular new format, with multi-destination flight bookings up 70% YoY and combined flight-rail multi-city itineraries up 14% YoY. Demand for integrated, multi-destination, multi-modal transport travel planning is rising rapidly.

2. Core user pain points: High planning friction exists for coordinating transport connections across multi-segment itineraries and arranging stopovers in different cities. Historically, transit segments have been treated as unproductive travel time rather than converted into high-quality travel experiences, leaving a clear service gap.

3. Solution references: Service providers can reference the logic of Meituan’s combined flight and rail offerings, integrating diverse transport resources to provide users with comparable options across price, travel time, transfer intervals, and stopover duration. They can also partner with local experience operators in transit cities to design stopovers as signature experience segments, reducing trip planning costs for users.

Meituan’s released holiday travel trends and supporting service rollouts provide actionable operational references for travel and local life platforms during peak holiday periods.

1. Shifts in user demand: Demand for long-haul and city-hopping travel has surged this holiday season, with total flight bookings up 44% YoY, long-haul flight bookings up 76% YoY, and multi-destination booking users up 70% YoY. Over 50% of users plan to depart before September 30 to avoid peak crowds. Travelers are no longer satisfied with traditional single-destination round-trip, single-mode transport products, driving sharp growth in demand for multi-modal, multi-destination connected travel services.

2. Actionable platform operation practices: Platforms can reference Meituan’s service upgrade approach, launching diverse combined flight and rail itinerary options that allow users to compare choices across price, travel time, transfer intervals, and stopover duration to select the optimal plan. Continuously expanding multi-modal transport product offerings can lower the planning barrier for multi-destination travel.

3. Merchant recruitment and operation guidance: Platforms can prioritize onboarding local experience, accommodation, and transport connection merchants in long-haul destinations and transit hub cities, converting traditional transit stops into stay-worthy consumer destinations to capture traffic from the boom in long-haul and city-hopping travel.

Meituan’s Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday travel data provides a latest empirical sample for cultural tourism and mobility industry research, clearly outlining new characteristics of cultural tourism consumption during extended public holidays.

1. New industry dynamics: Travelers’ trip radii have expanded significantly alongside the longer holiday period, with strong recovery in long-haul travel demand: bookings for flights over 2,000 kilometers rose 76% YoY, accounting for more than a quarter of total flight reservations. The trend has also spawned new travel formats such as "city-hopping": users booking multi-destination flights are up 70% YoY, and users choosing combined flight-rail multi-city itineraries are up 14% YoY, as transit segments shift from being treated as wasted travel time to becoming a core component of the travel experience.

2. Business model innovation directions: One-stop services featuring multi-modal transport combinations and multi-destination connectivity, represented by combined flight and rail products, are developing rapidly. By integrating cross-category transport resources and reducing user planning barriers, platforms can fully unlock consumption potential in transit cities, converting transport hubs into new tourism consumption nodes.

3. Industry development implications: During extended public holidays, traveler demand is shifting from single-destination sightseeing to multi-node, in-depth experiences. Cross-city, cross-modal resource integration represents a key direction for future cultural tourism service upgrades, and supporting industry infrastructure can be optimized and adjusted to facilitate multi-destination travel.