Many scenic spots across multiple regions are offering free admission policies, and the post-holiday tourism market is showing signs of a "off-season not quiet" trend.

Source: Securities Times Net | Author: Cao Chen

In recent days, multiple scenic areas have issued announcements about free admission. With spring outing demand stacking on top of the “free-ticket effect,” March—traditionally a low season for culture and tourism—has quickly warmed up. After the holiday, the culture-and-tourism market has shown a “low season that isn’t low” trend.

According to incomplete statistics, as of now, many provinces across the country, including Jiangxi, Henan, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Anhui, and others, have introduced the “scenic area time-limited free admission incentive policies” (some scenic areas apply the policy only to specific categories of visitors). Data from the Tongcheng Travel platform shows that over the past week, search popularity for keywords such as “scenic area free tickets” and “traveling out of peak hours” has continued to rise, with a month-over-month increase of 358%. Among them, attractions including YunTai Mountain Scenic Area, Shenyang Imperial Palace, Lushan Scenic Area, Tianji Longmen, and Qingtianhe Scenic Area have made it into the nationwide free-ticket scenic areas heat-ranking TOP10.

As of March 4, search and booking heat for hotels, scenic-area tickets, and related items on the platform has fallen significantly compared with the Spring Festival peak period, but it is still up by more than 10% compared with the same period last year. For some popular scenic areas, the month-over-month increase in search volume has reached 2.6 times, showing a “low season that isn’t low” picture. In terms of visitor composition, trips to return home and cross-provincial travel—which dominated during the Spring Festival—have gradually cooled down, while local trips and trips to nearby areas have become increasingly active.

Looking at specifics: In March, the Lushan Scenic Area in Jiangxi will waive admission tickets for all visitors from both home and abroad. Over the past week, the scenic area’s search volume increased 156% month over month, and booking heat for hotels around the scenic area rose 23% year over year. In addition, in March, the YunTai Mountain Scenic Area in Henan will offer free admission to visitors from Henan, Shanxi, Shandong, and Hebei—the “Four Provinces of Mountains and Rivers.” This has driven the scenic area’s search volume up 244% month over month, and booking heat for nearby hotels has grown 18% year over year. The Shenyang Imperial Palace Museum will release 3,000 free tickets per day from March 3 to March 8 for residents of Shenyang to reserve. On the Tongcheng platform, its search and reservation heat rose 163% month over month. After free ticket reservations opened on March 3 and 4, the tickets were quickly snapped up.

Data from Ctrip shows that the “free-ticket effect” directly drove a surge in hotel bookings around multiple scenic areas. On February 25, Jiangxi’s Lushan officially announced that from March 1 to March 31, 2026, it will offer free admission to all visitors from both home and abroad, covering 8 major core scenic areas, including the Lushan Scenic Area, Santiquequan, and Bailu Cave Academy. After the announcement was released, hotel reservation volumes in commercial areas around Lushan rose sharply. As of now, for March stays at hotels around Lushan, the reservation volume has surged 5 times compared with the week before the information was announced, on a month-over-month basis.

The data also shows that in the same period, hotel reservations in Jiujiang City, Jiangxi were boosted as well, with a month-over-month increase of 2.6 times, reflecting a consumption trend in which visitors take advantage of the free-ticket opportunity to deeply explore nearby cities.

Since November 2025, Quzhou in Zhejiang has opened 13 core scenic areas to free access for global visitors through March 31, 2026. Ctrip data shows that during the free-ticket period, the citywide hotel reservation volume in Quzhou increased nearly 20% year over year. Among them, the effect driven by free scenic areas is especially prominent: hotels near Jianglang Mountain grew 47% year over year; hotels near the Ancient Town of Shiba Dounties grew 21%; and hotels near Shuitingmen and Confucius Temple area grew 18%.

On February 25, YunTai Mountain in Jiaozuo, Henan announced that in March it will offer free admission to visitors from the four provinces—Henan, Shanxi, Shandong, and Hebei. As of now, the number of hotel reservations for stays in Jiaozuo in March has increased 2.5 times month over month.

On February 11, Ma’anshan in Anhui announced that five scenic areas will be opened for free to global visitors through March 31. Ctrip data shows that within 15 days after the news was released, the number of hotel reservations for local stays in March increased 3.1 times month over month.

Yang Han, a researcher at the Tongcheng Big Data Research Institute, analyzes that free admission for scenic areas lowers the decision threshold for travelers to choose to go on trips. Trading “less” on ticket prices for “more” in passenger flow can not only quickly activate foot traffic around scenic areas, but also form a clear consumption spillover effect—radiating and boosting local and cross-regional culture and tourism consumption. At the same time, free admission also imposes higher requirements on service quality at scenic areas, forcing the industry to improve fine-grained and professional operational levels.

It is worth noting that this coming weekend will mark “Women’s Day on March 8.” Scenic areas such as Huangshan in Anhui, Jiuzhaigou in Sichuan, and Ping Shan Forest Park in Nanjing have launched time-limited free-ticket policies for female visitors, driving the month-over-month increase in search volume for related scenic areas to exceed 1.8 times. With the “free-ticket effect” stacking together with the weekend and the Women’s Day node, the booking heat for related travel products this weekend increased by more than 65% month over month compared with the weekend before last.

Tongcheng Research Institute analysts believe that after this year’s holiday, the culture-and-tourism market has shown a “low season that isn’t low” pattern, mainly driven by three factors: first, scenic areas in multiple places have introduced free admission incentives, directly stimulating travelers’ willingness to go out; second, local trips and nearby trips have become mainstream—trip radius is shortened, but trip frequency is clearly increased; third, some office workers and older travelers choose to travel out of peak hours after the holiday, pursuing a travel experience with a higher cost-performance ratio. As the weather warms up, over the past week, the search volume on the Tongcheng Travel platform for keywords such as “flower viewing” and “spring outings” has already increased by more than 110% month over month. It is expected that in late March, the country will usher in a new round of a minor travel-demand peak.

(Editor: Wen Jing)

Keywords:

                                                            Scenic area  
                                                            Tourism