CMSC: With the catalysis of the long Spring Festival holiday, the concentrated release of leisure demand has reached a historical peak in both income and number of visits.

CMSC released a research report stating that during the Spring Festival, both domestic income and the number of people increased significantly, reaching a historical high. The growth rate of inbound and outbound tourism was slightly lower than the overall market, but showed a slight increase compared to previous years, exceeding expectations. During the 2026 Spring Festival holiday period, benefiting from the extended holiday period driving concentrated leisure travel demand, the hotel industry saw a clear trend of increasing both quantity and price. The vitality of duty-free shopping on outlying islands was evident, with outbound tourism growing at a slower rate than the overall market but still showing improvement compared to last year. High-end cities and tourist cities continued to see steady growth in visitor flow, with mountainous scenic areas and performing arts projects reaching new highs, and county-level tourism experiencing explosive growth. In the tourism industry chain, it is recommended to focus on hotels driven by leisure demand, regional scenic spots with external transportation conditions and internal optimization, and OTAs with strong correlations to outbound tourism and travel volume. Key points from CMSC are as follows: Overall situation: Domestic tourism saw a historic high in both the number of visitors and income, exceeding expectations. During this year's Spring Festival holiday period (February 15 to February 23, a total of 9 days), the total number of domestic tourists in China reached 596 million, an increase of 19.0% compared to last year, with an average of approximately 66.22 million tourists per day, a year-on-year increase of 5.8%. The average daily domestic tourism income was 89.28 billion yuan, a 5.5% increase, with per capita tourism income of 1,348 yuan, a decrease of 0.2%. The number of inbound and outbound tourists was approximately 17.996 million, with an average of 1.977 million tourists per day, a 10.1% year-on-year increase, slightly lower than the expected 14.1%. Overall, during the Spring Festival period, both domestic income and the number of visitors continued to grow, with significant double-digit increases in both total domestic tourism numbers and income due to the extended holiday period. Inbound and outbound growth rates were lower than the overall market, but still showed significant growth compared to previous years, with overall tourism data better than expected. Transportation situation: The volume of passenger flow increased by 10.5% year-on-year, with civil aviation and railway passenger volumes increasing by approximately 8.2% and 13% respectively. During the 2026 Spring Festival holiday period (February 17 to February 23, from the first day to the seventh day), the total inter-regional passenger flow in society was approximately 2.323 billion person-times, a year-on-year increase of approximately 10.5% compared to the same period last year and approximately 32.6% compared to the same period in 2019. The railway sent 99.378 million passengers (+13.0%); waterways sent 11.042 million passengers (+25.0%); civil aviation sent 17.762 million passengers (+8.2%); and road passenger traffic was 2.195 billion person-times (+9.5%). Hainan Duty-Free: Sales revenue per person increased by 21% and 26% in the first four days of duty-free shopping on outlying islands. During the 2026 Spring Festival holiday period (February 17 to 22, from the first day to the sixth day), Haikou Meilan Airport supported a total of 4,021 flight departures, transporting 673,706 passengers, a slight decrease of 1.0% in flights compared to the same period in 2025 and a 6.3% increase in passenger throughput. This shows that while the number of flights remained stable, there was a significant increase in passenger demand and seat occupancy. The consumption vitality of the Spring Festival in 2026 was evident, with the total shopping amount on the whole island of Hainan reaching 1.03 billion yuan in the first four days, with 137,000 people shopping, a year-on-year increase of 20.9% and 25.7% respectively. The performance of the area in Haikou remained stable, with duty-free sales reaching 882 million yuan in the seven days leading up to February 21 (the fifth day of the Lunar New Year), a year-on-year increase of 8.6%. Risk warning: Risks of economic consumption decline and changes in travel policies.