HK Stock Concept Tracker | Major Boost for Cultural Tourism! Holiday Travel Bookings Soar: Long-Haul Trips on the Rise, Service Consumption Accelerates Penetration (with Concept Stocks)

According to CCTV News, learned from the Ministry of Natural Resources, in order to promote the high-quality development of the tourism industry, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and the National Forestry and Grassland Administration recently jointly issued the "Opinions," optimizing the allocation of natural resource factors from multiple aspects, promoting the standardized and orderly development of the tourism industry, and unlocking new potential in the domestic demand market. The "Opinions" put forward policy measures in five aspects: strengthening spatial coordination, improving land use control for tourism, optimizing the natural resource supply mechanism, encouraging the use of existing space, and enhancing service and regulatory efficiency. It is reported that domestic flight bookings for the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day have shown growth, long-haul travel popularity has risen, and hotel bookings have accelerated. Data from TONGCHENGTRAVEL shows that the railway department officially began selling tickets for the day before the Mid-Autumn holiday (September 24), with tickets for popular routes generally in tight supply, driving a rapid rise in holiday flight booking popularity. In the past two days, the search popularity for domestic popular routes during the Mid-Autumn holiday increased by more than 160% week-on-week. Data from Umetrip shows that as of September 10, domestic flight bookings for travel dates from September 25 to October 7 exceeded 6.88 million, a year-on-year increase of about 12%. On the travel agency side, Li Mengran, media and public relations manager of UTour Group, said that domestic private small-group tours (groups of 2-8 people) are gradually becoming mainstream, with bookings for such products showing clear growth. Bookings during the Mid-Autumn and National Day period increased by 20% compared with the same period in previous years. Li Mengran also disclosed that during this year's Mid-Autumn and National Day period, the number of domestic tourists from UTour Group overall rose by about 50% compared with the same period last year. By region, driven by "A Letter to Grandma," South China continued to be booming, with tourist numbers increasing by 381% year-on-year; southwestern destinations such as Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, and Chongqing, with their rich ethnic characteristics and intangible cultural heritage, also attracted a large number of tourists, with visitor numbers increasing by 556% compared with the same period in previous years. Destinations in the northwest such as Xinjiang, Gansu, and Qinghai also saw registration numbers rise by 188% year-on-year due to their pleasant autumn scenery. From the perspective of travel trends, GZL International Travel Service believes that this year's Mid-Autumn and National Day outbound travel market will see three departure peaks. The first wave is concentrated during the Mid-Autumn period from September 25-26, expected to be the highest travel peak. Tourists can depart early through the "ask for 3 days off, get 13 days off" leave-combination plan, driving the long-haul outbound travel market of more than 10 days; the second wave departs on October 1, National Day itself, mainly consisting of parents and children; the third wave of outbound tourists is expected to depart in the middle of the Golden Week, taking staggered trips by combining leave after the holiday, with a stronger preference for medium- and long-haul destinations with itineraries of 6-9 days. Overall, TONGCHENGTRAVEL said that from the demand side, the "ask for 3 days off, get 13 days off" leave-combination plan has significantly pushed booking decisions earlier, accelerating searches and bookings related to the Mid-Autumn and National Day on the platform; from the supply side, airlines are increasing international routes, and destinations continue to introduce visa facilitation measures, providing basic support for the outbreak of long-haul cross-border travel. A research report from Wanlian Securities shows that the current valuation of the social services sector has fallen back to a historical bottom, and the market has fairly fully priced in the "weak reality." The three major signals of business travel, inbound tourism, and restaurant same-store performance have clear data verification windows in Q3-Q4. Once marginal improvement is realized, the elasticity of valuation repair could be considerable. In the long term, the share of service consumption in China has rebounded to 46%, close to the 50% structural critical point, and service consumption is expected to enter a stage of accelerated penetration. Related concept stocks: Trip.com Group (09961): UOB Kay Hian issued a research report stating that it raised Trip.com Group's target price to HK$508 and maintained a "Buy" rating. UOB Kay Hian pointed out that the State Administration for Market Regulation formally issued an administrative penalty totaling RMB 5.18 billion against Trip.com for suspected abuse of market dominance through exclusive cooperation and minimum price requirements, including confiscation of illegal gains of RMB 1.66 billion and a fine of RMB 3.52 billion. The bank believes that the penalty decision officially brings the antitrust investigation to a close, eliminating the core regulatory uncertainty surrounding the company. TONGCHENGTRAVEL (00780): On August 24, TONGCHENGTRAVEL released its second-quarter and first-half 2026 results report. As travel consumption becomes further integrated into daily public life, TONGCHENGTRAVEL's user scale and service capabilities continued to improve. As of the second quarter of 2026, TONGCHENGTRAVEL's annual paying user scale reached 254 million, and annual cumulative served person-times reached 2.04 billion; platform users' annual consumption frequency increased by 1.8% year-on-year, and annual average revenue per user (ARPU) increased by 10.3% year-on-year. H World Group (01179): BOCI issued a research report stating that H World Group's second-quarter 2026 results were solid, with adjusted EBITDA rising 20% year-on-year to RMB 2.7 billion, mainly driven by continued hotel network expansion, RevPAR improvement, and increased contribution from the asset-light franchise business. Encouragingly, although the quarter was affected by severe weather, RevPAR for the China business still increased by 1.1% year-on-year. The bank was also encouraged by management's increased confidence in the operating outlook, as the company raised its 2026 revenue guidance while reiterating that it expects full-year RevPAR to achieve low single-digit year-on-year growth. In addition, the company newly announced a three-year shareholder return plan totaling US$2.5 billion, which will further enhance capital returns and provide support for valuation. Reiterate "Buy" rating. China Tourism Group Duty Free Corporation (01880): China Great Wall believes that China Tourism Group Duty Free Corporation's Hainan base is solid and that it is expected to continue leveraging its leading position in duty-free in the Hainan region to expand market share. Looking ahead, the bank believes that with the high prosperity of summer travel, China Tourism Group Duty Free Corporation's performance is expected to improve quarter-on-quarter, and it is optimistic about the company's subsequent performance growth momentum.