Beijing, October 8 — With the National Day holiday wrapped up, a fresh "heatmap" of holiday consumption has emerged: travel enthusiasm is spreading from major cities to smaller county-level towns, with searches related to "county-bound trips" surging month-on-month; sporting events are deeply intertwined with holiday scenes, making "watching games plus vacationing" a new way for young people to plan their time off; and the trade-in policy for consumer goods continues to release its effects, while AI-powered smart consumption accelerates from novelty to standard fare. Experts say the booming cultural tourism market and rising smart consumption are both standout highlights of holiday spending and key directions for expanding domestic demand, while sustained and precise policy support will provide strong backing for consumption expansion and quality improvement in the fourth quarter and beyond.

Cultural Tourism Consumption: County Trips Gain Popularity, Sports Plus Vacation Heats 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 Province, tourist Li Changwei and his son recited "Quiet Night Thoughts" together in front of a stone inscription. Following in the footsteps of the poet immortal, watching "Happy Li Bai" at the Fantawild Oriental Heritage theme park, then slurping a bowl of Jiangyou fatty intestines and sipping a cup of houttuynia tea — a city of poetry and bustling life became the most vivid footnote for the "hidden gem town" of Jiangyou this holiday.

This National Day holiday, small towns are no longer just a place to "pass through," as "county-bound trips" have become a new growth point for holiday tourism consumption. Data from Mafengwo shows that searches for "county-bound trips" surged 238% month-on-month; Ctrip data shows that among scenic spot orders from eastern tourists, the proportion heading to third-tier cities and below rose from about 20% in 2024 to about 47%; Qunar data shows that hotel booking popularity in county towns grew 35% year-on-year.

A series of matches are also linking together more consumption scenarios such as accommodation, dining and city tours, adding more fuel to holiday spending. 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 was 99.2% full. Meituan data shows that during the National Day period, searches for "hotels near the National Tennis Center" grew 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 like the "Su Super League" in full swing but also simultaneously distributed a sizable amount of vouchers for dining and travel, with hotel booking popularity on some platforms rising more than 20% year-on-year. The spillover effect of service consumption has become more evident. Big data from the Ministry of Commerce shows that from October 1 to 6, foot traffic and revenue at 78 pedestrian streets (business districts) under key monitoring by the ministry rose 2.5% and 4.7% year-on-year, respectively.

Industry insiders believe the continuity of National Day travel enthusiasm is worth watching. Data from GZL, under Lingnan Holdings, shows that after the holiday, sign-ups for cross-provincial autumn viewing, special tourist trains and health-and-wellness long stays are strong, which is expected to carry forward market traffic and extend holiday travel momentum. Sinolink Securities judges that the effect of the long double-holiday period, combined with the expansion of "autumn breaks" in multiple provinces in the fourth quarter, is expected to support off-peak demand and keep fourth-quarter activity strong.

Goods Consumption: Trade-Ins Deliver Results, AI Smart Products Lead

Beyond the cultural tourism market, goods consumption is also running hot. Big data from the Ministry of Commerce shows that from October 1 to 6, trade-in programs for consumer goods benefited 6.392 million person-times, driving 33.48 billion yuan in sales. Structural changes are even more striking. Suning.com data shows that from October 1 to 7, foot traffic at core stores nationwide rose 50% year-on-year, sales of AI smart home appliances rose 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% of its first round of holiday consumption data.

"From trying the concept to broad public adoption, AI products are accelerating into the mainstream of industry upgrading by solving real-scenario pain points and deeply integrating into household life routines," said Ni Zhihua, general manager of the sales management center for Suning.com direct-operated stores. It is worth noting that the boundaries of smart upgrading are extending toward 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 once being popular urban categories; sales of floor washers, microwave-steam-oven combos and built-in kitchen appliances suited to 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.

Stronger Policy: 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 62.5 billion yuan in ultra-long special treasury bonds to local governments to support trade-ins of consumer goods, the fourth batch this year. With that, the full 250 billion yuan for consumer goods trade-ins for the year 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 it laid out systematic arrangements around specific areas such as expanding service consumption and upgrading goods consumption. Refined policies are also being improved at a faster pace. On the goods side, the Ministry of Commerce and six other departments' "Implementation Opinions on Promoting the Expansion and Upgrading of Goods Consumption" further clarified the cultivation of trillion-yuan-level markets in green consumption, smart consumption and health consumption; on the services side, the "Work Plan for Accelerating the Cultivation of New Growth Points in Service Consumption" and the "2026 Work Plan for Improving Quality and Benefiting the People in Service Consumption" were introduced one after another, focusing on key 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 are clearly layered. "Bulk durable goods underpin the basic market and focus on releasing existing renewal demand; service consumption is being upgraded and expanded, activating daily consumption vitality through quality and brands; green, smart and health consumption focuses on new growth points and shoulders the task of cultivating trillion-yuan-level markets," he said. Experts believe the most noteworthy signal from the National Day holiday consumer market is not just growth speed, but the direction of structural change. "Behind cultural tourism is the expansion of service consumption, behind home appliances is the upgrading toward smart and green, and at the policy level clear coordinates have been set 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, consumption's role as the "main engine" of economic growth is expected to become even more prominent in the fourth quarter.