Nation favors short- distance trips for May Day holidays

▶ Epidemic resurgences bring changes to tourism

China’s domestic tourism market has seen a new trend in customer behavior, with a change from trans- provincial travel to short community- based trips, as epidemic prevention and control entered a new phase during the five- day May Day holidays.

While public spending on tourism, especially long- distance travel, reached a historic low, expenditures on short- distance trips and picnics saw a significant jump as cities and provinces encouraged local residents to stay in for epidemic control during the holiday.

The epidemic has resurged in many provinces, with more frequent occurrences since March. Affected by the epidemic situation and local virus control policies, the public’s travel radius during the holidays was significantly reduced compared with previous times, a trend that industry analysts said was within expectations, and the booming market for shortdistance trips offered new opportunities for businesses.

Passenger flows across the country have run at a relatively lower level as cities and provinces encourage stay- in in an effort to stifle the spread of the virus.

From April 30 to May 4, the national railways are expected to carry 15.955 million passengers, a year- onyear decrease of around 30 percent, the latest data from China Railway showed.

Zhou Min, deputy director of the emergency office of the ministry, told a press conference on April 28 that the national passenger volume during the holiday is estimated at 100 million, with an average of 20 million passengers per day, a decrease of about 62 percent compared with the same period in 2021.

Beijing, a major tourism destination, restricted traffic flows for parks and public entertainment spots by allowing only 50 percent of the usual level of visitors, while several scenic spots in other provinces all put restrictions on traffic.

All of these factors have contributed to the sluggish market demand.

Despite the foreseeable impacts, some businesses significantly rebounded during the holiday, with products such as short- distance or community- based trips gaining more popularity among city residents.

Data from travel platform Qunar. com showed that, as of Wednesday morning, among the passengers who booked train tickets on the platform, those who traveled within their provinces accounted for 70 percent, and the number of bus ticket bookings for travel within provinces increased by more than 50 percent compared with the week before the holiday.

Zou Qingling, CEO of online travel agency Lvmama, said in a statement sent to the Global Times on Wednesday that the market environment, consumers, their needs and marketing models of the tourism industry are undergoing rapid and profound changes now.

While there are challenges for the industry, the change will also create new opportunities for tourism, industry players said.