Chinese consumers are pursuing more personalized and flexible travel options for the weeklong National Day holiday, with significant increases seen in bookings for self-driving tours, independent travel and private group vacations, industry players said.

Both domestic long-haul trips and outbound travel are gaining popularity, and traditional cultural tours and autumn excursions have emerged as top choices, said Tuniu Corp, a Nanjing, Jiangsu province-based online travel agency.

Running from Oct 1 to 7, the National Day holiday stands as the last long holiday of the year, leading to a considerable increase in flexible scheduling by consumers. As of Sept 20, bookings of flights and hotels during the holiday both exceeded levels recorded during the same period last year, Tuniu said.

"There was a surge in bookings for National Day holiday tour packages in September. Some people took an extra two-day leave on Sept 29 and 30 and thus combined it for a 10-day break in total," said Qi Chunguang, vice-president of Tuniu.

The travel peak is expected to occur on the first day of the holiday and last until Oct 4, with a gradual decline in the number of travelers from Oct 5 to 7," Qi said.

The holiday is also the best time to enjoy fall foliage. Some of the most popular domestic destinations include Huangguoshu Waterfall in Guizhou province, which stands as the largest waterfall in Asia; Lushan Mountain and Wuyuan in Jiangxi province; Huangshan Mountain in Anhui province; as well as the vibrant Kanas scenic area in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Tuniu said.

For outbound travel, short-haul trips are more popular, with some 60 percent of outbound travelers opting for short-haul destinations, while the growing trend for long-haul outbound trips is significant.

Japan, Thailand, Maldives, Indonesia, Turkiye, the France-Italy-Switzerland itinerary, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Singapore and Russia are among the top destinations in terms of booking volumes for the National Day holiday, Tuniu found.

"Emerging destinations such as the Serbia-Montenegro-Bosnia route, the Georgia-Armenia-Azerbaijan route, and the Czech Republic-Hungary-Austria route have also seen a peak in popularity during the National Day holiday, becoming hot choices for many seasoned travelers who are seeking unique experiences," Qi said.

In particular, taking self-driving tours has emerged as one of the most popular modes of travel for Chinese consumers. For the National Day holiday, an increasing number of travelers are opting to take high-speed trains to their destinations, and then participate in local group tours or rent cars for self-driving experiences, Tuniu said.

A man surnamed Luo, a traveler from Suzhou, Jiangsu province, has enjoyed taking self-driving trips, especially from Suzhou to Anji, Zhejiang province, a place surrounded by tea plantations and forests.

"Anji is a place that we have been coming back to for vacations. It's quite convenient to drive there from Suzhou, with beautiful scenery along the way. Parking lots of local hotels are equipped with charging stations for new energy vehicles, which have been convenient," Luo said.

In the just-concluded summer vacation, booking volumes of domestic car rentals and per capita spending on such rentals jumped 40 percent and 20 percent, respectively, on a yearly basis, said China's largest online travel agency Trip.com Group.

Overseas self-driving tours were also a big hit. Trip.com reported a 160 percent surge in overseas car rental booking volumes this summer.

Tourists who prefer self-driving tours were mainly born in the 1980s and 1990s, and car rental bookings made by tourists born after 2000 expanded by 77 percent over last summer, outperforming all other age groups. Most young drivers came from Beijing; Shanghai; Chengdu in Sichuan province; and Guangzhou and Shenzhen in Guangdong province, said Trip.com.

Notably, more female travelers have embarked on self-driving tours. From beaches with breathtaking views to vast grasslands, women have been traveling further afield.

"Car rental bookings made by females have maintained growth for five consecutive years. This summer, women — especially those born in the 1990s — contributed 41 percent to the total booking volume of car rentals," said Shen Jiani, a senior researcher with Trip.com Group.

"Some popular domestic self-driving routes included the ring roads of Hainan province, western Yunnan province, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and Gansu province," Shen said.

China's tourism market has entered a new stage of development in the past few years. The tourism market in smaller cities has embraced huge growth potential and travelers have shown increasingly diversified demand, said the China Tourism Academy in a report on the development of domestic tourism in 2023 and 2024.

For instance, Inner Mongolia has attracted more travelers taking self-driving tours. This summer, the number of such travelers jumped 94 percent year-on-year, ranking tops nationwide. The number of tourists who booked private tours and customized tours online surged 136 percent, said Trip.com.

A large number of visitors come from out of town and from overseas markets. Among foreign visitors, one third came from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia's capital, and 20 percent of the total came from Singapore. Melbourne, Australia also served as one of the region's top sources of foreign visitors, according to Trip.com.

Inner Mongolia's department of culture and tourism said it would beef up efforts on both the supply and demand sides to advance green, low-carbon and sustainable growth of local tourism this autumn, hoping to make the autonomous region the first choice for self-driving tours in the nation, and a top option for camping.

"Ulanqab will continue to welcome more tourists from Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province, and strive to attract more visitors from the Yangtze River Delta region and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area," said Hao Wenyue, director of the cultural tourism and sports bureau of Ulanqab, a city in the region.

Inner Mongolia also plans to launch more unique self-driving routes, such as driving routes that will pass by forests, grasslands, ancient sites and deserts, as well as China-Russia-Mongolia cross-border self-driving tours, the local government said.