The flow of people is surging, the business districts are full, the scenic spots are crowded, and the passenger flow at the port is endless… The “May Day” holiday that has just concluded has ushered in a comprehensive blowout in the national consumption and cultural tourism markets.
According to the payment business data of the People’s Bank of China, during the May Day holiday in 2026 (May 1-5, 2026), UnionPay and Wanglian processed a total of 28.937 billion payment transactions, with an amount of 7.85 trillion yuan, an increase of 23.45% and 2.74% respectively compared with last year’s May Day holiday (May 1-5, 2025).
Among them, the number and amount of payment transactions processed by overseas personnel in China increased by 45.15% and 36.96% respectively compared with the same period last year.
On May 6, combined with transaction data from multiple parties, it was found that during the May Day holiday, inbound and outbound tourism was booming in both directions, with offline consumption, performance and cultural tourism, inbound consumption, and cross-border payments all growing. “Paying for experience” and “convenient payment to travel around the world” have become distinctive features of this year’s holiday consumption.
Inbound and outbound consumption “blooms in both directions”
Maintaining the trend of previous years, inbound and outbound tourism during this May Day holiday still “blooms in both directions”.
According to the National Immigration Administration, border inspection agencies across the country protected a total of 11.279 million Chinese and foreign personnel entering and leaving the country during this year’s May Day holiday, with an average of 2.256 million people per day, an increase of 3.5% compared with last year’s May Day holiday. The peak of single-day customs clearance occurred on May 2, reaching 2.529 million people.
Among them, 1.255 million foreigners entered and exited the country, an increase of 12.5% over the same period last year; among the inbound foreigners, 436,000 entered the country under the visa-free policy, an increase of 14.7% over the same period last year.
The visa-free policy continues to be relaxed and travel becomes more convenient, directly igniting a boom in inbound and outbound travel and further activating holiday consumption vitality.
According to the payment business data of the People’s Bank of China, during the May Day holiday in 2026 (May 1-5, 2026), UnionPay and Wanglian processed a total of 28.937 billion payment transactions, with an amount of 7.85 trillion yuan, an increase of 23.45% and 2.74% respectively compared with last year’s May Day holiday (May 1-5, 2025).
Among them, the number and amount of payment transactions processed by overseas personnel in China increased by 45.15% and 36.96% respectively compared with the same period last year.
Su Xiaorui, a senior researcher at Suxi Zhiyan, believes that this year’s May Day payment data fully reflects the strength and vitality of my country’s consumer market. On the one hand, it is reflected in the domestic consumption level. Offline tourism and other scenes are booming, and experiential consumption has surged;
In Su Xiaorui’s view, behind the boom in inbound and outbound travel, convenient mobile payment functions play a cornerstone role. Multiple methods such as “foreign card binding”, “outsourcing for internal use” and mini programs have broken down the barriers that have affected the cross-border consumption experience in the past, making the two-way flow at home and abroad smoother.
Payment transactions refresh holiday popularity
With the boom in inbound tourism, mobile payment is indeed a “necessary tool” for foreign tourists traveling to China.
Judging from institutional payment data, on May 5, the WeChat team released a “May Day” data report. Three days before the holiday, domestic catering, scenic spots, entertainment and other industries concentrated on outbreaks. The number of openings of WeChat mini programs in the film and performance industry increased by 98% month-on-month.
Inbound tourism is booming, with the number of “foreign card-bound” transactions by foreigners increasing by 58% year-on-year, and the average daily number of mini-programs used by inbound tourist users increasing by 42% year-on-year.
In terms of industry distribution, the top three industries with the highest number of WeChat payment transactions among inbound tourists are e-commerce, catering, and comprehensive local life services.
In addition, data show that from May 1st to 3rd, inbound tourists’ consumption in China using two convenient payment services, Alipay’s “external card binding” and Alipay+ “outsourced internal use”, increased by nearly 70% compared with last year’s May Day holiday.
Inbound tourists like “in-depth independent travel + quality consumption” in China during the May Day holiday. Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Jinhua (Yiwu), Chengdu, Chongqing, Nanjing and Xi’an have become the top ten “China Tour” cities with Alipay consumption.
Tourists from Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Malaysia and other places like to use their hometown e-wallets to travel to the mainland, with the largest transaction amounts.
Inbound consumption continues to be booming, and outbound travel is also heating up. According to multiple interviews, Chinese tourists can also enjoy convenient services brought by multiple payment companies abroad.
On May 6, an outbound tourist who was traveling abroad said that now there is no need to exchange large amounts of foreign currency in advance for outbound consumption. WeChat and Alipay can be used normally in local shops and have long become standard features for merchants.
“The POS machines at the checkout counters of many stores will directly display the payment QR code. We can pay by scanning the code. The operation is no different from domestic consumption. Moreover, WeChat often offers exchange rate discounts, which saves money and worries.” According to Alipay, Hong Kong, Macao and Southeast Asia are still everyone’s favorite outbound destinations. The penetration rate of mobile payment among Chinese tourists in Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Vietnam and other places has increased rapidly, and the number of transactions has grown fastest.
Alipay currently covers more than 40 million QRIS merchants in Indonesia.
There is still room for incremental expansion
The industry believes that the “May Day” transaction data of multiple institutions have increased across the board, reflecting the strong recovery of domestic consumption and fully reflecting the effectiveness of cross-border payment services.
“The payment giant’s business performance is relatively impressive. The growth rate of inbound tourists’ foreign card-bound payment business is outstanding, the popularity of cross-border two-way transactions has increased simultaneously, and the payment activity of offline tourism, catering and other experiential consumption has increased significantly.” As Wang Pengbo, chief analyst of Broadcom Consulting, commented, behind this is the relaxation of entry and exit policies to promote the two-way flow of people, the continued supply of domestic cultural and tourism scenes, and the continuous optimization of cross-border payment products by superimposed payment institutions. Multiple factors have jointly pushed the data higher.
From the perspective of the industry, the current cross-border service base of payment institutions is very solid, and there is still room for improvement in the future.
“On the one hand, it can accelerate the penetration of more scenes and realize the ‘incremental expansion’ of mobile payment in areas and scenes. We can consider strengthening payment coverage in some non-standard scenes, such as non-standard accommodation scenes such as B&Bs, so as to solve the previous pain point of inconvenient consumption by foreigners; on the other hand, it can improve the payment experience.
For example, AI technology can be used to improve the accuracy of foreign language translation and gradually eliminate language barriers.
In the field of public services, we can break down possible digital barriers in various aspects of consumption scenarios such as telecommunications processing and medical appointments for immigrants.” Su Xiaorui suggested.
Wang Pengbo believes that payment institutions can continue to polish scene coverage and service details in the future.
“For example, institutions can strengthen cooperation with overseas local institutions to expand acceptance networks, optimize cross-border risk control models, create differentiated payment solutions for inbound and outbound users, and expand more segmented consumption scenarios under the premise of compliance,” he said.
