When a long holiday rolls around, who can blame travellers for wanting to trade traffic jams for tropical beaches? This Golden Week, Chinese travellers are doing just that, with Malaysia emerging as a favourite getaway for those looking to swap the daily grind for good food, sunny skies and a little adventure.
Malaysia has ranked as a top choice for Chinese travellers during the upcoming Golden Week holiday. Spanning from 1-7 October this year, the national holiday is one of China’s major travel periods, with Trip.com Group booking data revealing that outbound departures are expected to peak on 1 October, the official start of the holiday.
Based on flight bookings by Chinese travellers, Malaysia is among the top 5 most popular overseas destinations, and the top 3 within Southeast Asia.
Kuala Lumpur leads as the preferred city for tourists arriving in Malaysia, followed by Kota Kinabalu and Penang.1
Nature Escapes in High Demand
Malaysia’s coastal offerings are likely drawing interest as island holidays are a popular choice among outbound Chinese audiences this Golden Week, with searches for nature-related holidays up 53% year-on-year (YoY). Popular beach destinations in Southeast Asia are also seeing a sharp rise in interest from Chinese visitors, with YoY flight bookings to Cebu and Phuket up by 111% and 78% respectively.
Millennials and Gen Zs are leading this trend, with those aged 18 to 24 showing the highest YoY growth in bookings across age groups.2
Malaysia Joins Multi-City Itineraries
Chinese travellers are also combining their Golden Week vacations with the Mid-Autumn Festival holidays, which take place a week before, to enjoy extended trips. As they make use of the longer break to venture further, demand for multi-stop journeys is surging, bookings for multi-destination itineraries have risen by 84% year-on-year (YoY), with Kuala Lumpur being part of some popular combinations, showcasing the strength of its connectivity.3
Mid-Autumn: An Asian Celebration
With the Mid-Autumn Festival widely celebrated across Asia, China’s inbound tourism is showing strong signs of growth. Lesser-known Chinese cities such as Yanji, Dunhuang and Hailar are experiencing some of the fastest increases in flight bookings, while major cities like Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou continue to attract strong inbound travel flows, popular with visitors from Hong Kong SAR, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, as well as Australia.
Malaysia also emerged as one of the fastest-growing source markets for travel to China for the holiday period, with hotel bookings across China by Malaysians achieving 280% YoY growth.
With its rich cultural heritage and myriad attractions, China is becoming a popular holiday destination across all ages. This Golden Week, Malaysians added a variety of its top-most attractions to their itineraries, including Shanghai Disney Resort, Jiuzhaigou Scenic Area, and Emperor Qinshihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum, all ranked on Trip.Best’s 2026 global list of recommendations on ‘Best Things to Do’.4
Note:
1 Based on Trip.com Group data from 1-7 October 2026.
2 Based on Trip.com Group data from 1-7 October 2026. Year-on-year growth is calculated by comparing the daily volume averages between the core Golden Week 2026 travel period (1-7 October 2026) and Golden Week 2025 travel period (1-8 October 2025).
3 Based on Trip.com Group data from 25 September – 7 October 2026. Year-on-year growth is calculated by comparing the daily volume averages between the extended Golden Week 2026 travel period (25 September – 7 October 2026) and Golden Week 2025 travel period (1-8 October 2025).
4 Based on Trip.com Group data from 25 September – 7 October 2026.