As the Spring Festival holiday falls at the beginning of the winter break, tourist travel will show a "dual peak" trend. The first peak is concentrated from January 20th to 25th (21st to 26th day of the lunar year), with most products lasting 5-6 days, making it convenient for tourists to return home for Chinese New Year after their winter break travels. The second peak appears from January 29th to February 1st (1st to 4th day of the lunar year), with travel days ranging from 4-8 days. The emergence of these dual peaks not only provides tourists with more travel options but also makes the tourism market more vibrant.

According to data released by Tuniu.com, family groups account for over 80% of Spring Festival travelers. Among them, multi-generational travel (three generations: elderly, middle-aged, young) and parent-child travel are particularly prominent, accounting for 36% and 27% of travelers respectively. Additionally, some young users choose to travel with their parents or elders during the Spring Festival, making up 21% of this group. It is estimated that during the 2025 winter and Spring Festival holidays, parent-child groups will account for about 80% of travelers, with popular domestic parent-child travel destinations including Beijing, Yunnan, Xi'an, Hunan, Northeast China, Guizhou, Hubei, Hebei, and other places.

On December 4, 2024, "Spring Festival" was officially inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. This news significantly sparked enthusiasm and attention for China's intangible cultural heritage. During the Spring Festival, experiential activities such as intangible cultural heritage folk culture and intangible cultural heritage handicraft skills showed extremely high popularity, becoming popular choices for tourists. According to statistics, over 90% of domestic Spring Festival tour products incorporate various traditional New Year celebration elements, such as Beijing temple fairs, Chaoshan Yingge dance, Guangdong lion dance, Minnan You Shen (parade of deities), Northwest Shehuo (folk celebratory performances), and other uniquely local intangible cultural heritage folk activities, as well as intangible cultural heritage handicraft experiences full of creativity and craftsmanship like hairpin flowers, tie-dyeing, paper-cutting, Xuan paper, lacquer fans, and iron flower performances, which have attracted many tourists.

Mafengwo's Spring Festival trend forecast shows that Chaoshan and Fujian regions, full of New Year's flavor, have become popular choices for tourists to experience the Spring Festival atmosphere, with "Chaoshan Spring Festival" seeing a 320% surge in popularity in the past week. In addition, Quanzhou, known as "half city fireworks, half city immortal," topped the list of small towns with the fastest-growing New Year's atmosphere, thanks to its intangible cultural heritage 'zanhuahui' (hairpin flower enclosure) and the "caijie" (parade) folk custom, which resumed last Spring Festival after 20 years, with its popularity surging by 216%.

Ice and snow tourism experienced explosive growth during the Spring Festival holiday. Harbin, Baishan, Jilin, Xuexiang, Mohe, and other ice and snow tourism destinations once again demonstrated strong appeal, with various "creative" activities attracting southern tourists to head north to experience the world of ice and snow. According to Tuniu data, among users of ice and snow tourism in Northeast China, southern tourists accounted for over 75% of trips, with Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Fujian, Guangdong, and Shanghai being particularly prominent. Corresponding to southern tourists going north to experience ice and snow, heading south for warm-weather escapes and wellness is also a popular choice during the Spring Festival holiday, with Sanya, Guangzhou, Lijiang, Beihai, Xishuangbanna, and others becoming more popular choices for warm-weather escape users, among whom the post-80s generation showed particularly strong demand for such consumption.

It's worth noting that this year marks the peak of the solar activity cycle, and the aurora borealis, usually difficult to witness, has also become observable in some areas. This rare astronomical spectacle has attracted significant attention from young people, with "domestic aurora" becoming a new hot trend they pursue. Tourism booking orders in Mohe, Altay, Hemu, Xilinhot, and other places have therefore seen substantial growth.

The trend of diversified consumer demand for outbound travel is becoming increasingly evident. On one hand, outbound short-haul destinations with convenient transportation, visa-free or easy visa access, and high cost-effectiveness are favored, such as Japan and the Maldives. On the other hand, high-ticket, resource-scarce tourism products are also popular, such as long-haul destinations like Italy and New Zealand, and resource-scarce tourism products like Notre Dame de Paris and Northern Europe's Five Nations Aurora tours.

According to Tuniu data, among outbound island travelers during the Spring Festival, parent-child groups accounted for 43%, with the proportion of parent-child travelers for island destinations like the Maldives reaching as high as 65%. Simultaneously, inbound tourism is also growing rapidly. With the relaxation of visa-free policies, China's "visa-free circle of friends" continues to expand. Ctrip data shows that inbound travel orders during the Spring Festival increased by 203% year-on-year, with major source markets including South Korea and Malaysia.

Foreign tourists' enthusiasm for experiencing Chinese New Year in China is high, with cities like Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou becoming popular choices. The implementation of visa-free policy for South Korea at the end of the year further attracted a large number of Korean tourists to places like Harbin and Chengdu. They shared travel photos and Vlogs on overseas social media platforms, sparking more attention and buzz.

As tourists' demands for higher quality travel products continue to rise, high-quality travel products such as pure play tours, small group tours, and private tours have gained widespread recognition. Tuniu data shows that during the 2025 Spring Festival, packaged tours firmly held the top spot, accounting for over 70% of bookings. In the "Top 100 Popular Packaged Tours for the 2025 Spring Festival" list, pure play tours received widespread user recognition, accounting for over 80% of the products; small group tours and customized/private tours were also highly sought after, accounting for 36% and 22% of the products respectively. In addition, the number of packaged tours with an overall user satisfaction rating of over 96% reached 95%, fully reflecting tourists' yearning for high-quality travel experiences and their preference for related products.

From the Spring Festival of 2023 to the Spring Festival of 2025, the average number of days spent traveling per person for Tuniu's Spring Festival packaged tour products has climbed to approximately 4.8 days, exceeding the average of 4.3 days during the 2019 Spring Festival holiday. In addition, among the 2025 Spring Festival packaged tour products, trips lasting 5-6 days have become the mainstream choice for users, accounting for 43% of bookings.

Approximately 80% of domestic travel products during this year's winter and Spring Festival holidays saw a price decrease of 10%-40%. This price drop not only allowed tourists to enjoy greater savings but also intensified competition in the tourism market. Major travel agencies have launched various promotional activities to attract more tourists.

Conclusion

The 2025 Spring Festival tourism market was booming, with diverse consumption trends emerging in traditional cultural tours, ice and snow tours, warm-weather escape tours, and outbound tours. As tourists' demands for higher quality travel continue to rise, the tourism market will continue to innovate products and optimize services to meet the growing travel needs of tourists.