China’s 2026 Spring Festival marketing trends: what they mean for travel, consumer behaviour and spending

China’s 2026 Spring Festival season showed that festive demand is not just returning, but evolving. According to Wisers’ 2026 Spring Festival Marketing Trends Insight Report, the season was shaped by three clear forces: younger consumers redefining the meaning of New Year around emotion and surprise, the rise of AI enabled “cyber New Year” rituals, and stronger interest in local culture and intangible heritage as part of modern festive life. The report concludes that the most effective campaigns were those with real “human feeling”, where brands felt sincere, responsive and closely connected to people’s actual seasonal moods.

For travel and hospitality brands, this matters because Spring Festival is no longer only a booking peak or a retail moment. It has become a period when consumers want every purchase, journey and experience to feel emotionally worthwhile. They are not only paying for transport, rooms, meals or gifts. They are paying for reunion, comfort, surprise, self-expression and memory making.

That makes this report useful beyond marketing teams alone. It helps explain how Chinese consumers are choosing where to go, what to buy and why they are willing to spend.

Emotional value is becoming the real festive currency

One of the clearest signals in the report is that young people are now shaping the “new New Year atmosphere”. Wisers notes that younger generations have become the new decision makers of Spring Festival culture, and that “surprise” has become the season’s most important emotion. The report cites Xiaohongshu data showing that during the past two New Year periods, positive emotion led both note volume and readership, with “surprise” standing out as the kind of unexpectedly positive experience that feels like a sign of good luck.

This matters for consumer behaviour because it shows that festive spending is no longer purely transactional. People are more likely to spend when a purchase feels emotionally meaningful, socially relevant or symbolically lucky. That helps explain why the festive period keeps expanding beyond traditional gifting into beauty, food, lifestyle products, entertainment and travel services. The consumer is no longer asking only whether something is useful. They are also asking whether it feels right for this moment.

For travel, this means value perception is changing. A hotel is not just selling a room during Spring Festival; it is selling a setting for reunion, rest or family recognition. An airline is not just providing transport; it is part of the emotional journey home. A destination is not simply offering attractions; it is offering stories, rituals and moments that can be remembered and shared. When emotional value rises, experience design becomes more commercially important than simple price cutting.

Travel decisions are becoming more mood led and scenario based

The report suggests that brands should move away from chasing traffic and focus instead on real people in real festive scenarios. That is a useful lens for travel planning. Spring Festival decisions are increasingly tied to specific emotional contexts: going home, hosting relatives, rewarding oneself after a busy year, travelling with family, or creating shareable memories with friends.

This tells us that travel demand is becoming more scenario based. Consumers do not want a generic holiday message. They respond more strongly to offers that match a clear situation. For example, reunion travel calls for convenience, reassurance and family friendly touches. Short leisure breaks need atmosphere, local culture and a feeling of escape. Premium travellers may still spend, but increasingly on experiences that feel personal, warm and culturally rich rather than simply expensive.

For hotels, this could mean packaging around family meals, festive rituals, culture themed amenities or slower wellness oriented stays after the social intensity of New Year visits. For travel retail, it suggests demand for products that fit the festive state of mind: symbolic gifts, easy to share snacks, limited seasonal items and products tied to memory and self care. For destinations, it means local storytelling matters more, especially when it can be turned into something visually memorable and emotionally resonant.

AI is changing festive participation and influencing purchase pathways

Data source: Douyin Hot Topics, Douyin Index (Jan–Feb 2025)

A second major finding in the report is the rise of “cyber New Year” behaviour. Wisers highlights how AI greeting, electronic New Year goods and AI related festive topics drew heavy discussion, with the hashtag “bringing my AI to pay New Year visits” receiving more than 280 million views. The report also points to VR, AR and XR enabled temple fairs, virtual reunion dinners and AI generated personalised New Year elements such as custom couplets and zodiac themed digital art.

This matters because discovery and conversion are becoming more blended. Consumers may first engage with a festival through playful digital participation, then move into physical purchases later. In travel, that means inspiration is increasingly coming from interactive, personal and socially shareable formats rather than static promotional material alone. A destination that can be previewed digitally, a hotel campaign that can be personalised, or a festive travel experience that people can remix into content may have a stronger chance of entering the consumer’s consideration set.

Data source: Douyin Hot Topics, Douyin Index (Jan–Feb 2025)

The wider message is that digital behaviour is now part of the festival itself, not separate from it. For brands, that makes content less about broadcasting and more about participation. It also means consumers are becoming used to experiences that feel adaptive, interactive and personal. Those expectations will continue to shape travel planning, retail browsing and premium service design well beyond the holiday season.

Local culture is not just symbolic now, it is commercially useful

The report’s third major theme is the modern expression of local culture and intangible heritage. Wisers notes that after Spring Festival was recognised as intangible cultural heritage, traditional customs became a new engine for the experience economy. The report cites strong attention around Yingge dance and molten iron flower performances, including a Douyin topic that exceeded 440 million views. It argues that non heritage culture now works best when it is participatory, emotionally accessible and reinterpreted in modern formats.

Data source: Douyin Hot Topics, Douyin Index (Jan–Feb 2025)

This has strong implications for travel and spending behaviour. Chinese consumers are showing that they want more than visual symbols of tradition. They want culture they can enter, photograph, understand and talk about. That makes heritage commercially powerful because it adds depth, identity and storytelling to a purchase. Cultural consumption is no longer niche. It is becoming part of mainstream festive decision making.

For destinations, this supports more culture led itineraries, museum partnerships, seasonal performances, local craft markets and food experiences tied to regional identity. For hotels, it opens opportunities for festive cultural programming, heritage inspired gifting, or room experiences that go beyond decoration. For luxury and premium brands, it reinforces that localisation works best when culture is genuinely integrated into the product or narrative, rather than used as surface styling.

Spending behaviour shows that usefulness alone is no longer enough

Source: Wisers. (2026). Chinese New Year Marketing Trends & Insights Report.

Several campaign examples in the report help explain how people are spending. Heinz placed its “tu ma tou” campaign in metro and high speed rail settings, linking the product to homecoming journeys and festive cooking. Yili quickly turned a public joke into a campaign with strong interaction, and related discussion around “Ma Yili endorsing Yili” passed 700 million reads. Meituan Medical Beauty tapped into the desire to look and feel better ahead of dense social occasions, effectively turning beauty services into part of the practical pre holiday checklist.

These examples suggest that consumers are spending when products fit a recognisable festive situation. Purchases gain momentum when they combine practical function with emotional timing. This is an important signal for travel as well. Spending during the season is not disappearing, but justification matters more. Consumers spend more easily when the product helps them show up better, host better, travel more smoothly, reconnect with others or create a moment worth remembering.

That means brands should think less in categories and more in occasions. Travel, food, beauty, gifting and retail increasingly sit in the same festive basket. The winners are likely to be the brands that understand the emotional job a product or service is doing in the consumer’s life.

Conclusion

What these trends show is that China’s Spring Festival economy is becoming more emotionally intelligent, more experience led and more culturally layered. Consumers still spend, but they are spending with sharper intent. They are choosing products, destinations and experiences that help them feel something, express something or share something. Young people are leading that shift, while AI and local culture are reshaping how festive meaning is created and circulated. As Wisers summarises, the season revolved around emotional value, and the best campaigns succeeded because they felt genuinely human.

For travel, hospitality and consumer brands, the implication is clear: future festive growth will come less from louder promotions and more from better reading of the consumer moment. The brands most likely to win are those that can connect service, story and spending to the emotional reality of how Chinese consumers now celebrate.

Want to understand how these Spring Festival shifts could affect your travel, retail or hospitality strategy in China? Get in touch with our team to explore how emotional value, culture led experiences and scenario based spending can be translated into sharper campaigns, stronger customer journeys and more relevant market positioning.