When Chinese spring travel goes global

Chun yun. That’s the ubiquitous phrase in China around this time of the year. Literally, it means spring travel. But in practice, it means a nation on the move, going home for the Spring Festival family reunions.

Equally ubiquitous at this time of the year are media reports and photographs of seething masses of humanity at rail and bus stations — topped only by people in my country, India, traveling on train roofs during their festival time.

Perhaps the journalists are missing a trick — they should stake out the airports, particularly the overseas departure gates, for the big story.

For it appears that the centuries-old tradition of the grand family reunion of three or four generations is under siege — many, in fact, millions, have been giving it a miss to head abroad, mostly with the whole extended family in tow.

The numbers are staggering: According to leading online travel agency Ctrip, nearly 80 percent of those polled opted to travel during the holiday; and of those, more than half planned to go overseas. Ctrip’s marketing director was quoted as telling China Daily that this year would set a record for the number of overseas trips.

Last year, Chinese tourists spent $129 billion — roughly the equivalent of the total annual foreign direct investment in China — on overseas travel, according to a joint survey by PR agency Ruder Finn and market researcher Ipsos. That figure will easily be overtaken this year, according to most estimates.

The world is prepared. Beverly Hills, to cite just one example, has staged a month-long festival, marking the fourth annual Chinese New Year celebrations in the city.

What a difference a decade makes.

Ten years ago, on Lunar New Year’s day, I got an international business-class ticket for less than the normal economy fare — the good, tradition-minded folks in China were all headed for their hometowns.

This year, for travel around the same festival period, I found I would have had to pay three times more than I paid during the Christmas period, the peak global travel season.

That leaves me with two choices for Spring Festival next year: book now and get an early-bird fare for international travel; or travel within China and hope the rest of the country is headed overseas. Happy chun yun, world. And gong xi fa cai. Contact the writer at ravi@chinadaily.com.cn