Southeast Asian travellers look beyond China’s traditional gateways - Get updated on what's happening in tourism!

Southeast Asian travellers are broadening their travel patterns in China, with destinations beyond the country’s four traditional international gateways gaining a larger share of bookings. New data from Traveloka shows particularly strong growth for a group of major regional cities as travellers from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam explore a wider range of Chinese destinations.

Between January and August 2026, combined flight and accommodation transactions to 15 cities classified in China as “new first-tier” destinations grew more than twice as fast as bookings to Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and Guangzhou. As a result, the emerging group increased its share of Traveloka’s China business by five percentage points year-on-year. The four established gateways nevertheless remain the platform’s most booked Chinese destinations.

Qingdao recorded the most striking change. Bookings to the eastern Chinese port city increased in all five Southeast Asian source markets, pushing it six positions higher to tenth place in Traveloka’s ranking. Chongqing and Kunming each moved up two places, while Harbin climbed three. Chengdu remained the most popular destination outside the four traditional gateways, ranking fifth overall.

China’s city portfolio widens

The figures suggest that growing demand for China is increasingly being distributed across a broader range of destinations. Chengdu, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Qingdao, Nanjing, Xi’an, Wuhan, Changsha and Zhengzhou are among the cities appearing prominently in Traveloka’s booking data.

Several offer distinctly different tourism products from the established gateway cities. Chengdu has developed into an important cultural and leisure destination in western China, while Chongqing combines a rapidly growing city-break market with access to the upper Yangtze region. Qingdao adds a coastal component, and Harbin has gained international attention as a winter destination.

Search activity for China also increased across all five Southeast Asian markets covered by Traveloka, with Singapore and Malaysia recording the strongest growth. While searches and completed transactions measure different stages of travel planning, Traveloka sees both indicators as evidence of sustained interest in the destination.

“China is no longer one itinerary for Southeast Asian travelers,” said Alex Jung, Head of Marketing at Traveloka. “The familiar gateways remain important but travelers in each market are showing interest in a different mix of destinations.”

Airlines support broader access

Improving access is helping to widen the range of destinations available to Southeast Asian travellers. Traveloka has expanded its cooperation with Chinese airlines to offer more routes and promotional fares. Its airline partners include China Southern, China Eastern, Air China, Xiamen Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Juneyao Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines and Spring Airlines.

The development is significant for China’s international tourism sector because Southeast Asia provides several large and geographically close source markets. Easier air access allows travellers to build itineraries around cities that previously played a smaller role in international tourism or to combine established gateways with secondary destinations.

Traveloka’s ranking still demonstrates the strength of the traditional entry points. Shanghai remains number one, followed by Guangzhou, Beijing and Shenzhen, with no change in their positions compared with the same period of 2025.

The faster growth outside those four cities, however, points to a gradual diversification of demand. For destinations across China, that creates opportunities to attract Southeast Asian visitors beyond the established Beijing-Shanghai circuit and to develop more specialised city, cultural, culinary and seasonal travel products.

Image Credit: © AI generated illustration