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

Recently, multiple scenic spots have issued free-admission announcements. Combined with the spring-trip demand and the “free-ticket effect,” March—a traditional off-season for culture and tourism—is quickly heating up, and after the holiday the culture-and-tourism market shows a “no-off-season-off-season” characteristic.

According to incomplete statistics, as of now, multiple provinces across the country, including Jiangxi, Henan, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Anhui, and others, have rolled out time-limited free-admission優惠 policies for scenic spots (some scenic spots exempt only certain categories of visitors). Data from the Tongcheng travel platform show that over the past week, search interest in keywords such as “scenic spot free admission” and “traveling out of peak hours” has continued to rise, with a month-over-month increase of 358%. Among them, destinations such as Yuntai Mountain Scenic Area, Shenyang Palace Museum, Lushan Scenic Area, Tianji Longmen, and Qingtianhe Scenic Area have entered the TOP 10 hotlist for nationwide free-admission scenic spots, with surging popularity.

As of March 4, search and booking heat for hotels, scenic spot tickets, and other items on the platform has declined significantly compared with the peak period of the Spring Festival. However, compared with the same period last year, it still shows more than 10% growth. For some popular scenic spots, the month-over-month increase in search volume has reached 2.6 times, reflecting a “no-off-season-off-season” scenario. In terms of the source of visitors, during the Spring Festival period the dominant share of returning-to-home travel and inter-provincial travel has gradually cooled, while local trips and nearby trips have become increasingly active.

Looking specifically, in March, the Lushan Scenic Area in Jiangxi will waive admission for all domestic and international visitors. Over the past week, the scenic area’s search volume increased 156% month over month, and booking heat for surrounding hotels rose 23% year over year. In addition, in March, the Yuntai Mountain Scenic Area in Henan will offer free admission to the “Four Provinces of Mountains and Rivers”—Henan, Shanxi, Shandong, and Hebei—driving the scenic area’s search volume to increase 244% month over month, while booking heat for surrounding hotels grew 18% year over year. The Shenyang Palace Museum will allocate 3,000 free tickets each day from March 3 to March 8 for Shenyang residents to reserve. On the Tongcheng platform, its search and reservation heat increased 163% month over month. After free tickets opened for reservation on March 3 and 4, they were quickly snapped up.

Qunar data show that the “free-ticket effect” directly boosted a surge in hotel bookings around multiple scenic spots. On February 25, Lushan officially announced that from March 1 to March 31, 2026 it would offer free admission to all domestic and international visitors, covering eight core scenic areas including the Lushan Scenic Area, Sandiquan, and the Bailu Cave Academy. After the news was released, the number of hotel reservations in the commercial districts around Lushan increased significantly. As of now, the number of bookings for hotels around Lushan for March stays surged 5 times compared with the week before the announcement.

Data show that in the same period, hotel bookings in Jiujiang, Jiangxi were also boosted, rising 2.6 times month over month, reflecting a consumption trend in which visitors take advantage of the free-admission opportunity to deeply explore nearby cities.

Since November 2025, Quzhou in Zhejiang has been offering free access to 13 core scenic areas for global visitors through March 31, 2026. According to Qunar data, during the free-admission period, the number of hotel bookings across the entire city of Quzhou increased nearly 20% year over year. Among them, the driving effect of free-admission scenic spots is especially prominent: hotels near Mount Jianglang increased 47% year over year, the area near the ancient town of Bashi-district increased 21%, and areas near Shuiting Gate and the Confucian Temple increased 18%.

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

On February 11, Ma’anshan in Anhui announced that five major scenic areas would be opened for free to global visitors until March 31. Qunar data show that within 15 days after the announcement, the number of bookings for local hotels for March stays increased 3.1 times month over month.

Yang Han, a researcher at Qunar’s big data research institute, analyzes that free admission for scenic spots lowers the threshold for visitors’ travel decisions. By trading “subtraction” in ticket prices for “addition” in visitor flow, it not only can quickly activate the flow of people around scenic spots, but can also form a clear consumption spillover effect, radiating and driving local and cross-regional culture-and-tourism consumption. At the same time, free admission also sets higher requirements for the service quality of scenic spots, forcing the industry to improve its refined and professional operation standards.

Worth noting is that this weekend will mark “Women’s Day on March 8.” Limited-time free-admission policies for female visitors have been launched for scenic spots such as the Yellow Mountain in Anhui, Jiuzhaigou in Sichuan, and the Ping Shan Forest Park in Nanjing, driving the month-over-month increase in related scenic spot search volume to more than 1.8 times. With the “free-ticket effect” combined with the weekend and the Women’s Day on March 8, the reservation heat for related travel products this weekend increased more than 65% month over month compared with the weekend of the previous week.

Tongcheng Research Institute believes that after the Spring Festival, the culture-and-tourism market this year shows a “no-off-season-off-season” characteristic, mainly driven by three factors: first, multiple places have rolled out free-admission incentives, directly stimulating visitors’ willingness to go out; second, local travel and nearby travel have become the mainstream, shortening the travel radius but clearly increasing the frequency of trips; third, some office workers and the silver-haired group choose to travel out of peak hours after the holiday, pursuing a more cost-effective travel experience. As the weather warms up, over the past week, on the Tongcheng travel platform, search volumes for keywords such as “flower viewing” and “spring outing” have increased more than 110% month over month. It is expected that in late March, the country will usher in a new round of minor travel peaks.

(Editor: Wen Jing)

Key words:

                                                            Scenic spots
                                                            Tourism