During the 8-day National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, Shanghai’s cultural and tourism market presented an impressive performance in both people’s livelihoods and economic development through a feast of integrated cultural, tourism, commercial, sports, and exhibition activities characterized by «strong supply and demand with diverse formats.» Tourism big data monitoring shows that the city received 25.485 million visitors during the holiday period, representing a 19.74% year-on-year increase. The average hotel room occupancy rate reached 63.70%, up 3.9 percentage points from the same period last year, demonstrating vibrant cultural and tourism consumption.
Diverse Festivities Drive Holiday Consumption
This holiday season, Shanghai focused on deep integration of cultural, tourism, commercial, sports, and exhibition activities to create a series of high-level festive events, establishing rich and diverse new scenarios for holiday consumption.
On October 6, the 93-day 36th Shanghai Tourism Festival concluded successfully. Its innovative «one festival, two seasons» model continued to release consumption momentum, ultimately driving comprehensive tourism consumption to exceed 300 billion yuan, becoming a «powerful engine» for urban consumption. Concurrent events such as the 12th Fuxing Art Festival, Changtan Art Festival, 2025 Bund International Art Festival, and Shanghai International Tea Culture Tourism Festival skillfully integrated cultural elements like intangible cultural heritage and art into commercial districts, creating tourism experience scenarios that combine everyday life atmosphere with artistic sensibility, allowing residents and tourists to immerse themselves in unique cultural charm while shopping.
Sports events also added color to the holiday. High-end competitions including the 2025 Shanghai Rolex Masters, Shanghai International Horse Culture Week, 2025 Shanghai Rowing Open, and 2025 UIM F1H2O World Championship established a comprehensive consumption model of «spectating + experiencing + tourism,» attracting numerous domestic and international sports enthusiasts while effectively expanding the boundaries of cultural and tourism consumption.
Major commercial districts hosted continuous performances with abundant shopping and dining programs. Events like the «Most Hongqiao» Carnival, «Love Shopping Putuo, Gathering Celebration,» and «Shanghai Summer» Qingpu Golden Autumn Shopping Season maximized participation and experience, further releasing the consumption potential of cultural-tourism-commercial integration. Events such as the Taiyin Life Festival at Pudong’s Qiantan 31, «Ugly Clothes Market» at Huangpu’s HAI550, «East-West Food Power» Food Market at Hongkou’s Jinchao 8, and Yangpu University Road’s temporary pedestrian street market brought different immersive experiences to residents and tourists through youthful, personalized approaches.
Cultural Institutions Create «Cultural Magnets»
During the holiday period, Shanghai’s major cultural institutions and performance venues transformed into «cultural magnets,» providing «viewable, appreciable, and participatory» tourism experiences through high-quality exhibitions and immersive performances, gathering crowds, driving related consumption, and showcasing Shanghai’s inclusive urban character.
On October 7, a citizen visited the Musée d’Orsay exhibition at Pudong Art Museum with her family during the final days of the holiday, purchasing a set of eco-friendly bags in small, medium, and large sizes at the first-floor cultural creative store. «The cultural creative store was very crowded, with plush keychains, refrigerator magnets, and bookmarks being particularly popular. I specially took my child to the observation deck on the museum’s top floor and found the restaurant next to it was already fully booked. I didn’t expect cultural institutions to be so popular!»
During the holiday, Shanghai’s 2025 West Bund Culture and Art Season autumn-winter series events commenced. The Shanghai Museum East Branch’s «Dragon Soaring China: Hongshan Culture Ancient Civilization Special Exhibition» and «Splendid Liupan: Ningxia Guyuan Cultural Relics Exhibition» led audiences to explore the mysteries of ancient civilizations. Exhibitions including «The Greeks—From Agamemnon to Alexander» at the World Expo Museum and «Stellar Instruments—Shanghai Astronomy Museum Meteorite Culture Exhibition» at the Shanghai Astronomy Museum covered multiple fields including history, art, and astronomy, making the city a «cultural check-in destination» during the holiday.
The performing arts market was equally heated. The «Urban Symphony, Artistic Nanxi» special performance jointly presented by the Shanghai Tourism Festival and Shanghai International Arts Festival, along with the large-scale outdoor symphony choir concert «Carmina Burana» conducted by Xu Zhong, provided residents with stunning auditory feasts. Wagner’s opera «The Flying Dutchman,» Verdi’s opera «Otello,» and the Bavarian State Orchestra concert at Shanghai Grand Theatre fully demonstrated the charm of高雅艺术. The German light comedy puppet show «Western Cowboy» at Xuhui’s West Bund Dream Center, along with free concerts, bubble shows, and outdoor movies
