A performance is staged at the opening ceremony of the 2026 Zhaosu Tianma cultural tourism festival in Zhaosu County, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, June 20, 2026. The 2026 Zhaosu Tianma cultural tourism festival kicked off here on Saturday. (Xinhua/Hu Huhu)

As the summer travel season in China kicks off with ticket sales underway, booking have reached record levels. Data from several online travel platforms indicates a sharp rise in summer travel demand this year, with northwestern cities experiencing particularly notable growth.

Data from travel platform Qunar sent to the Global Times on Sunday showed that in the week ended that day, summer travel flight bookings jumped 65 percent week-on-week, with families making up more than 60 percent of travelers. 

This summer, destinations in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region dominate the popularity charts. Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou remain the top gateways for inbound summer tourism, and western Chinese cities such as Lanzhou in Northwest China's Gansu Province have seen inbound visitor numbers more than triple, Qunar said. 

Data from the Tongcheng Travel platform showed that bookings for summer tourist trains are up more than 70 percent year-on-year, precisely matching the preferences of family travelers and middle-aged and elderly tourists who favor slower-paced, immersive, and in-depth travel experiences.

Among long-distance travel itineraries, cross-Xinjiang routes linking the cities of Turpan, Hami, Ili, Altay, and Kashgar continue to dominate in popularity, featuring iconic attractions including Kanas Lake, Sayram Lake, and the historic Kashgar Old City.

Airlines are also experiencing a surge in demand. Data from Tongcheng Travel showed that as of June 17, the top domestic flight destinations for the opening week of the summer travel season were cities such as Chengdu, Kunming and Chongqing, with northwestern hub cities like Urumqi registering the most significant increases.

The popularity of western cities shows that holiday travel spending is no longer shaped solely by a destination's inherent attractions; rather, it is increasingly driven by the interplay of curated experiences and emotional connection, Jiang Yiyi, a tourism and sports expert at Beijing Sport University, told the Global Times on Sunday.  

With consumer demand in first-tier cities nearing saturation, lower-tier markets have stepped up with higher-quality tourism offerings, delivering a compelling mix of affordability and distinctiveness that has injected fresh vitality into the local economy, Jiang added. 

The summer travel peak follows the just-concluded Dragon Boat Festival. Tongcheng Travel said that bookings for short-distance travel products in the Yangtze River Delta and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei regions grew more than 30 percent year-on-year.

Local governments are stepping up efforts to boost tourism with a wave of subsidy programs and promotional campaigns as the summer travel season heats up.

In the latest move, the Guangdong Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism launched a consumption subsidy campaign of 30 million yuan ($4.43 million) on Tuesday, targeting both domestic and international travelers as well as local residents. The initiative, which ran through the Dragon Boat Festival holiday and into the summer peak season, offers tourism vouchers via partnerships with major online platforms, according to news portal 21jingji.com.

The travel boom was reflected in broader consumer spending. Retail sales from January to May rose 1.4 percent year-on-year to 20.6 trillion yuan, or 19.0 trillion yuan excluding automobiles, which grew 2.7 percent, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.