What changed
China’s self-drive tourism economy is accelerating as vehicle ownership, road access and highway charging capacity expand. By June 2026, China had 371 million vehicles and 533 million drivers; from January through August, highway service areas added about 11,000 high-power charging guns, matching all additions made through 2025 and earlier.
Why it matters
The car is becoming more than a way to reach a destination. During the National Day holiday, roads carried more than 90% of travel flows, sending spending along the route through restaurants, hotels, attractions, charging stations, vehicle maintenance and travel equipment.
The physical network is already vast: China had 5.5789 million kilometres of roads at the end of 2025, including 199,400 kilometres of expressways. Highway service areas now have about 22,000 high-power charging facilities and roughly 89,000 charging facilities in total. That makes the highway rest stop an increasingly important part of the travel economy, especially as electric vehicles put charging time and location at the centre of long-distance journeys.
The market exceeded 1.5 trillion yuan in 2024 and is reaching beyond its former core of people aged 35 to 55, toward Generation Z and active people over 60. That broadening matters because it turns self-drive tourism from a holiday habit into a wider demand for accessible routes, better services and more varied destinations.
The policy direction points the same way. China’s 15th Five-Year Plan calls for higher-quality tourism products and deeper links between industries. If the new charging capacity reduces queues and travel uncertainty as intended, more of the economic benefit could flow beyond major cities into roadside businesses and smaller destinations. How much of future market growth comes specifically from the 2026 charging expansion remains unclear, but the infrastructure is moving quickly enough to change where and how domestic tourism happens.
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