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

Shanghai Tourism Festival

The Shanghai Tourism Festival is an annual month-long celebration launched in 1990 to promote the city’s cultural and economic vitality. It features a grand opening parade with international performers, alongside food fairs, cultural exhibitions, and special travel discounts, transforming the city into a vibrant hub of festivities each September.

Fuxing Art Festival

The Fuxing Art Festival is a contemporary cultural event held in Taiwan, typically in Taipei, celebrating local creativity and community engagement. While it does not have a long historical background, it emerged in recent years as a platform to revitalize urban spaces and support emerging artists, designers, and performers. The festival fosters a vibrant atmosphere through exhibitions, markets, and interactive installations, blending modern art with public participation.

Changtan Art Festival

The Changtan Art Festival is a contemporary cultural event held in Changtan Village, Zhejiang Province, which has transformed a once-depopulated rural area into a vibrant artistic hub. Through initiatives like the «Art Revival Village» project, it integrates modern art installations and performances with the traditional landscape, revitalizing the local community and attracting tourism. The festival exemplifies China’s growing movement of using art to breathe new life into rural regions.

Bund International Art Festival

The Bund International Art Festival is a major contemporary arts event held annually along Shanghai’s historic Bund waterfront. Launched in 2010, it transforms this iconic colonial-era financial district into a vibrant platform for modern artistic expression. The festival showcases large-scale installations, performances, and digital art, creating a dynamic dialogue between Shanghai’s historical architecture and cutting-edge creative works.

Shanghai International Tea Culture Tourism Festival

The Shanghai International Tea Culture Tourism Festival is an annual event launched in 1994 to celebrate the city’s deep-rooted tea culture. It aims to promote cultural exchange and tourism by featuring traditional tea ceremonies, performances, and exhibitions. The festival highlights Shanghai’s historical role as a major port in the global tea trade.

Shanghai Rolex Masters

The Shanghai Rolex Masters is a prestigious annual professional men’s tennis tournament held in Shanghai, China. Established in 2009, it is one of the nine ATP Tour Masters 1000 events and was created as the replacement for the former Hamburg Masters. The tournament is renowned for its high-level competition and has become a cornerstone of the Asian tennis circuit.

Musée d’Orsay exhibition at Pudong Art Museum

The Musée d’Orsay exhibition at Pudong Art Museum is a special showcase featuring masterpieces from the renowned Musée d’Orsay in Paris. This traveling exhibition presents iconic Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, allowing Shanghai audiences to experience these important European artworks without traveling to France. The collaboration represents a significant cultural exchange between French and Chinese art institutions.

Shanghai Museum East Branch

The Shanghai Museum East Branch is a major new cultural institution currently under construction in the Pudong New Area, scheduled to open in late 2024. It is designed as an extension of the renowned Shanghai Museum and will focus on displaying international arts, including ancient civilizations and contemporary works from around the world. The project aims to further establish Shanghai as a global cultural hub.