A Chinese tourist poses for a photo on Sunday outside the Colosseum in Rome, Italy, while holding a Chinese senior high school history textbook, the cover of which features the historical structure. Rome received a large number of Chinese tourists during the recent National Day holiday. LI JING / XINHUA

　　More flexible vacation plans by people during the just-concluded Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays have fueled tourism consumption, creating a spending spree both domestically and at overseas destinations.

　　This year's National Day holiday lasted seven days, from Thursday to Wednesday, and some people combined it with the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday to extend their break to as long as 13 days, stimulating both domestic and outbound travel.

　　Figures from travel portal Trip.com Group show that demand for long-distance tours surged during the holiday, with more than 10 percent of people who booked domestic itineraries on the platform extending their vacations to eight days. The proportion was less than 6 percent in 2024.

　　While traditionally popular cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou retained their appeal among tourists, county-level and village destinations demonstrated strong competitiveness during the holiday, thanks to their distinctive local customs, traditions and cuisines, according to travel agencies.

　　Yang Yanying and her 5-year-old son visited Huangling, a village in eastern China's Jiangxi province, during the holiday. The village is known for its Hui-style architecture and the local practice ofshaiqiu, or drying crops in bamboo baskets on rooftops or window sills.