During the 2026 Spring Festival holiday, the number of domestic tourists and their spending both reached a historic high. According to data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, during the 9-day Spring Festival holiday in 2026, 596 million people traveled domestically, with a total domestic travel expenditure of 803.483 billion yuan. Compared with the 8-day Spring Festival holiday in 2025, this represents an increase of 95 million people and 126.481 billion yuan respectively. According to data from the Ministry of Transport, the demand for self driving travel on highways has been fully released during holidays, with an average daily self driving travel volume of nearly 270 million people, a year-on-year increase of 8.3%, accounting for 86% of the total travel volume. According to the statistics of 53300 highway charging stations included in the national charging facility monitoring service platform, from February 15th to February 23rd, the total number of charging times for electric vehicles on highways was 6.021 million, with a charging capacity of 149.7675 million kilowatt hours and an average daily charging capacity of 16.6408 million kilowatt hours, an increase of 52.01% compared to last year's Spring Festival, reaching a historical high. With the improvement of charging service guarantees, more and more people are choosing new energy vehicles for self driving travel. During the holiday season, the daily average number of new energy vehicles passing through highways nationwide was 11.52 million, a year-on-year increase of 34%. In addition, the rental of small and micro buses has become a new growth point in the transportation consumption scene, with an average daily rental of about 650000 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 15%. Overall, during the 9-day Spring Festival holiday, the total number of cross regional personnel movements in the whole society exceeded 2.8 billion, with an average of 311 million people per day, a year-on-year increase of 8.2%, and the scale of travel reached a historic high. The transportation volume of all modes has increased significantly: the daily passenger volume of railways, highways, and waterways has increased by more than 10% year-on-year, and the daily passenger volume of civil aviation has increased by 7.7% year-on-year. According to data from Fliggy, the number of domestic travel orders during the Spring Festival holiday has reached a new high, with ticket orders increasing by over 80% year-on-year and hotel room nights increasing by 75% year-on-year. In the hot cultural and tourism market, various traditional Chinese New Year cultural and tourism projects frequently "go viral", and traditional Chinese New Year flavors have become the strongest IP to attract tourists from all over the world. "Sun Wukong flips his head and passes by, Sichuan opera changes his face, attracting children to chase and watch. At the corner, there is also a Q&A session on Three Kingdoms knowledge with" Luo Guanzhong ". ”In Beijing, the ancient city of Wanping, with a history of more than 380 years, ushered in the Spring Festival Liyuan Temple Fair for the first time. The temple fair featured "opera+China-Chic+immersive interaction" and attracted many tourists. Thousands of miles away in the Chaoshan region, traditional Chinese New Year customs such as English songs, gongs, and drums create an immersive experience for tourists. According to Tongcheng data, the hotel booking popularity in popular destinations such as Shantou has increased by over 80% year-on-year. Going to Datong to watch a lively social fire performance, or going to Tengchong to enjoy a fireworks show... These cities full of local characteristics have all entered the top 10 cities with the fastest growth rate of inbound tourism on Qunar platform. The National Spring Festival Culture and Tourism Consumption Month activities in 2026 are being vigorously launched, with concentrated distribution of consumption vouchers, special subsidies, etc. in various regions to promote the prosperity of the cultural and tourism market. Fujian has launched over 4300 cultural and tourism consumption activities and more than 560 preferential policies; Hunan has launched over 3000 consumer promotion activities through the distribution of consumption vouchers, discounted admission tickets to scenic spots, and art performances that benefit the people; Chongqing has launched over 1300 cultural and tourism activities and distributed a travel subsidy of 50 million yuan. Various payment tools help ignite the enthusiasm for holiday consumption, including food, accommodation, transportation, travel, shopping, and entertainment. Everyone's consumption scenario cannot be separated from spending money, and each payment related data shows the warmth and vitality of the Spring Festival holiday consumption market. According to data from the People's Bank of China, payment transactions during the 2026 Spring Festival holiday continued to grow. From February 15th to February 23rd, UnionPay and UnionPay processed a total of 39.302 billion transactions with a total amount of 1.312 trillion yuan. The daily average number of transactions and amounts increased by 37.45% and 19.26% respectively compared to the 2025 Spring Festival holiday. In Hainan, the amount of duty-free shopping on outlying islands during the 2026 Spring Festival holiday was 2.72 billion yuan, an increase of 30.8% compared to last year's Spring Festival holiday; The number of offline transactions for travel, lifestyle, and entertainment on WeChat Pay has increased by over 20% year-on-year; The number of Alipay "AI Pay" users exceeded 100 million, and the consumption amount of inbound tourists with Alipay increased by more than 80% over last Spring Festival. Various payment tools have become an accelerator to promote Spring Festival consumption. In Qinhuai District, Nanjing, 21700 digital RMB red envelopes with a discount of 50 yuan for orders over 100 yuan were instantly launched; In Heilongjiang, with the help of the Cloud QuickPass app, over 200 million yuan worth of consumer vouchers were distributed to ignite the enthusiasm for holiday consumption; In Henan, 200 million yuan of Spring Festival coupons were issued to the public through WeChat applet and Alipay App. With the help of AI, many Internet platforms have deeply bound financial support and technology empowerment to create a "drain" to promote consumption. Qianwen App announced the launch of the "Spring Festival Banquet Plan" with an investment of 3 billion yuan, and Yuanbao App launched a 1 billion yuan cash red envelope. According to data provided by the People's Bank of China, during the peak period of red envelope distribution from New Year's Eve to early morning on the first day of the lunar new year, the highest number of online payments was 144700 per second, a year-on-year increase of 7.18%, reaching a historical high. More and more foreign tourists are choosing to cross mountains and seas, experience the flavor of Chinese New Year, and purchase Chinese New Year goods. According to data from the People's Bank of China, compared to last year's Spring Festival holiday, this year's Spring Festival holiday saw an increase of 78.10% and 44.33% in the daily average number and amount of payment transactions processed by UnionPay and UnionPay for overseas visitors to China, respectively. (New Society)