Hong Kong Stock Concept Tracking | Cultural tourism welcomes huge benefits! Holiday travel bookings are soaring: long-term travel is rising, and service consumption is penetrating at an accelerated pace (with concept stocks)

The Zhitong Finance App learned that according to CCTV news, we learned from the Ministry of Natural Resources that 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 State Forestry and Grass Administration recently jointly issued “Opinions” to optimize the allocation of natural resources from various aspects, promote the standardized and orderly development of the tourism industry, and unleash the new potential of the domestic demand market. The “Opinion” proposes policy measures in five areas, including strengthening space coordination, improving the control of land use for tourism, optimizing natural resource supply mechanisms, encouraging the use of existing space, and improving the effectiveness of services and supervision.

According to reports, there has been an increase in domestic air ticket reservations for the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day, the popularity of long-term travel is increasing, and hotel reservations are speeding up. According to Tongcheng Travel data, the railway department officially started selling tickets the day before the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday (September 24). Tickets for popular destinations are generally in high demand, driving a rapid rise in the popularity of holiday ticket reservations. In the past two days, the popularity of airline ticket searches for popular domestic routes during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday has increased by more than 160% from week to week.

According to air travel data, as of September 10, the number of domestic airline ticket reservations for travel dates from September 25 to October 7 exceeded 6.88 million, an increase of about 12% over the previous year.

In terms of travel agencies, Li Mengran, PR manager of Zhongxin Travel Media, said that domestic private group tours (groups of 2-8 people) are gradually becoming mainstream. The number of reservations for such products has increased markedly, and the number of reservations during the Mid-Autumn Festival National Day has increased 20% compared to the same period in previous years.

Li Mengran also revealed that during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day this year, the overall number of domestic travelers from Zhongxin Tourism increased by about 50% compared to the same period last year. Looking at the subregion, driven by “Love Letter to Grandma”, the South China region continues to be popular, with the number of travelers increasing 381% over the same period last year; Southwest destinations such as Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, and Chongqing have also attracted a large number of visitors due to their strong ethnic characteristics, and the number of travelers increased 556% over the same period in previous years. The number of applicants for trips to destinations such as Xinjiang, Gansu, and Qinghai in the northwest region also increased by 188% compared to last year due to the pleasant autumn colors.

Judging from travel trends, Guangzhou Travel believes that the Mid-Autumn Festival National Day outbound travel market will usher in three waves of peak departures this year. The first wave focuses on the Mid-Autumn Festival period of September 25-26, which is expected to be the peak of travel. Visitors can depart early through the “Please Take 3 Rest 13” vacation plan to drive the long-term outbound travel market for 10 days or more; the second wave departs on National Day on October 1, mainly families with families; the third wave of outbound tourists is expected to depart in the middle of Golden Week and travel through false peaks after the holiday season, preferring medium- to long-term destinations with a 6-9 day itinerary.

Overall, Tongcheng Travel said that from the demand side, the “please take 3 days off to 13” vacation plan is clearly ahead in booking decisions, and the platform accelerates searches and reservations related to the Mid-Autumn Festival National Day; from the supply side, airlines continue to introduce visa facilitation measures to encrypt international routes and destinations, providing basic support for the outbreak of long-term cross-border travel.

According to the Wanlian Securities Research Report, the current valuation of the social services sector has fallen back to the bottom of history, and the market's pricing of “weak reality” is quite adequate. The three major signals of business travel, inbound travel, and the same restaurant have clear data verification windows in Q3-Q4. Once marginal improvements are realized, the flexibility of valuation repair is considerable. In the long run, the share of service consumption in China has rebounded to 46%, close to the 50% structural tipping point, and service consumption is expected to enter a phase of accelerated penetration.

Related concept stocks:

Ctrip Group (09961): Dahua Jixian released a research report stating that Ctrip Group's target price was raised to HK$508, maintaining a “buy” rating. Dahua Jixian pointed out that the State Administration of Market Supervision and Administration officially issued administrative penalties totaling RMB 5.18 billion, including confiscation of illegal proceeds of RMB 1.66 billion and fines of RMB 3.52 billion for acts involving Ctrip's alleged abuse of its dominant position in the market to implement exclusive cooperation and minimum price requirements. The bank believes that the penalty decision officially brought an end to the antitrust investigation and eliminated the core regulatory uncertainty surrounding the company.

Tongcheng Travel (00780): On August 24, Tongcheng Travel released the results report for the second quarter and first half of 2026. As travel consumption is further integrated into people's daily lives, the number and service capacity of Tongcheng travel users continues to increase. As of the second quarter of 2026, Tongcheng Travel's annual paid users reached 254 million, and the cumulative number of annual service users reached 2.04 billion; the annual consumption frequency of platform users increased 1.8% year on year, and the annual average customer revenue contribution (ARPU) increased 10.3% year on year.

Huazhu Group (01179): Bank of China International released a research report saying that Huazhu Group's performance in the second quarter of 2026 was steady. The adjusted EBITDA increased 20% year-on-year to 2.7 billion yuan, mainly driven by continued expansion of the hotel network, improvements in RevPAR, and increased contributions to the asset-light franchise business. Encouragingly, despite being affected by bad weather during the quarter, China's business RevPAR increased 1.1% year over year. The bank is also encouraged by management's increased confidence in its operating prospects. The company raised its 2026 revenue guidance, while reaffirming that RevPAR is expected to achieve low single-digit year-on-year growth throughout the year. In addition, the company announced a new three-year shareholder return plan totaling 2.5 billion US dollars, which will further enhance capital returns and support valuations. Reiterate the “buy” rating.

China Tax Exemption (01880): Great Wall Securities believes that China's China Free Hainan market is stable, and it is expected that it will continue to take advantage of Hainan's leading duty-free advantage and expand its market share. Looking ahead to the future, the bank believes that along with the boom in summer travel, China's China Exemption performance is expected to improve month-on-month, and is optimistic about the growth momentum of China's follow-up performance.