Tongcheng Travel: The Spring Festival travel rush of 2026 officially starts, with the Western regions showing high demand for flight and hotel bookings.

On February 2nd, the 2026 national Spring Festival travel rush officially kicked off. The combination of people returning home for family visits, students on holiday, and tourists on vacation led to a strong demand for transportation on the first day of the Spring Festival travel rush, with a variety of destinations and an increase in hotel bookings. According to TONGCHENGTRAVEL data, on February 2nd, the average prices of domestic and international flights slightly increased compared to the same period last week, but overall remained stable, with a significant increase expected to start on February 7th. Western cities not only became popular destinations for domestic flights on the first day of the Spring Festival travel rush, with hotel bookings in Chengdu and Chongqing second only to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, leading non-first-tier cities in China. On the first day of the Spring Festival travel rush, the long-distance travel market showed a trend of moving westward. According to TONGCHENGTRAVEL data, as of 1 pm on February 2nd, the top five hot destinations for domestic flight bookings were Guiyang, Chengdu, Kunming, Chongqing, and Xi'an, with departure cities mainly concentrated in the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta regions such as Shanghai, Wenzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo, and Shenzhen. It is worth noting that Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, and Pearl River Delta are also the regions with the highest demand for short-distance travel on the first day of the Spring Festival travel rush, with a customer structure mainly composed of business travelers and leisure vacationers. As the Spring Festival approaches, the increased visits of business travelers and temporary accommodation needs of travelers have also boosted hotel bookings on the first day of the Spring Festival travel rush. According to TONGCHENGTRAVEL data, as of 1 pm on February 2nd, the hotel search popularity in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen increased by over 70% compared to the same period last week. Hotels near train stations, airports, and popular business districts have already shown sold-out status for some products on the same day. Hourly rooms, king-size beds, and family rooms have become popular room types with higher booking popularity.