Data from the Tongcheng Travel (00780) platform shows that during the competition period, hotel reservation rates around the venue surged by over 150% year-on-year. The booking rate for high-end hotels within a 3-kilometer radius of the Wuyuan River Stadium has exceeded 90%.
According to Zhitong Finance APP, the 35th ITTF-ATTU Asian Cup will be held at the Wuyuan River Stadium in Haikou, Hainan Province, from February 4 to 8, 2026. Data from the Tongcheng Travel (00780) platform shows that hotel bookings around the venue during the competition period have surged by over 150% year-on-year, with the booking rate for high-end hotels within three kilometers of the Wuyuan River Stadium exceeding 90%.
As the highest-level individual table tennis event in Asia, this tournament has attracted 64 top players. The competition features men's and women's singles and will include 128 matches across five competition days. This event also serves as a qualifying tournament for the ITTF World Cup, with fierce competition expected.
This marks the first time that the Asian Cup Table Tennis Tournament is being hosted in Haikou, and it is also the first major international sporting event held in Hainan Free Trade Port following its island-wide customs closure. It not only gathers Asia’s top table tennis talents for head-to-head competition but also becomes an important window for showcasing urban vitality, unlocking consumer potential, and promoting deep integration of sports, culture, and tourism. Taking this opportunity, Haikou City will launch the "Haikou Welcomes Table Tennis" Sports Consumption Carnival from February 3 to 12, linking 18 key commercial districts, characteristic streets, and transportation hubs across the city. Focused on four goals—expanding sports consumption scenarios, building an event-travel brand, fostering public participation, and boosting local consumption—the initiative aims to create an integrated urban route combining "spectating + shopping + check-ins + experiences," presenting a modern, open, confident, and vibrant Haikou to the world. Fans can redeem various consumption vouchers, including dining, retail, cultural products, and duty-free items, at participating business districts using their Asian Cup tickets, achieving city-wide discounts with a single ticket.
The Asian Table Tennis Cup has effectively stimulated Hainan's cultural and tourism consumption chain. Leveraging the benefits of upgraded duty-free policies after customs closure, the "ticket stub economy" model introduced during this Asian Cup has proven highly effective. Tourists can exchange event tickets for duty-free shopping vouchers, driving simultaneous growth in both the number of duty-free shoppers and spending amounts. This innovation transforms "spectator traffic" into "duty-free consumption traffic," making the event a significant channel for attracting visitors to Hainan's duty-free economy and further solidifying its position as an international tourism and consumption hub, according to analysis by the Tongcheng Research Institute.
This year’s Asian Table Tennis Cup has garnered significant attention due to the return of leading Chinese national team players Sun Yingsha and Wang Chuqin from injury. Both withdrew from the WTT Hong Kong Finals in late 2025 due to injuries and subsequently missed multiple international events. Choosing Haikou as their first competition of the new year not only ignited nationwide fan enthusiasm but also directly spurred demand for integrated "spectating + travel" itineraries.
