Travel demand on the rise
May Day holiday sees boom for domestic and overseas trips amid growth in high-end tours
China’s five-day May Day holiday saw the country’s biggest travel bonanza since the COVID-19 pandemic began over three years ago, with more people traveling greater distances and choosing higher-end options, industry experts said.
The figures exceeded those of 2019 in some categories as pent-up demand was unleashed. The tourism sector still has huge potential for the latter half of the year, experts said.
During the Dragon Boat Festival in June and the ensuing summer vacation season, and the National Day holiday in October, the market is likely to see successive peaks, said Guo Lechun, vice-president of the big data research institute of Qunar, an online travel agency.
The May Day holiday, which ran from April 29 to May 3, served as the first long national holiday since China optimized its pandemic prevention and control measures and restarted quarantine-free cross-border travel in January.
During the break, the average distance that Chinese tourists traveled by plane was 1,638 kilometers. The distance almost matched the prepandemic level of 2019, according to Trip.com Group, China’s largest online travel agency.
An increasing number of Chinese tourists pursued higher-quality experiences and booked first-class or business-class flights. During the holiday, the booking volumes of flights in those two classes surged nearly 80 percent compared with the same period in 2019, and the growth rate was higher than that of economy class.
Other travelers chose to take chartered flights and their main destinations included Koh Samui in Thailand, Okinawa in Japan, and the Maldives, Trip.com said.
“For this year’s May Day holiday, the most distinguishing feature was the strong release of pent-up demand for long-haul travel. It has driven the recovery of many related sectors such as catering, accommodations, transportation and shopping,” said Peng Han, director of strategic research at the research institute of Trip.com.
The holiday saw more than 80,000 domestic flights in total, and the daily average level rose by 15 percent compared with the same holiday in 2019. The average price of a one-way domestic flight during the break was 1,211 yuan ($175), including tax, which marked a rise of 39 percent from 2019, according to FlightAI, a market insight platform affiliated with Trip. com.
The number of international flights during the holiday was about 40 percent that of 2019. Flights from the Chinese mainland to Macao, the United Arab Emirates and the Maldives saw higher booking volumes compared with the same period in 2019, FlightAI found.
During the break, the total volume
of orders for flight tickets and hotels for outbound travel from the Chinese mainland soared nearly 900 percent and 450 percent year-on-year, respectively, Trip.com said. That was a peak in the past three years for national holidays, the company added, and in-depth tours organized by smaller groups were more popular among Chinese travelers.
Li Fangping, a 58-year-old retiree who lives in Beijing, joined a 10-person group and traveled to Russia with her husband for a week during the holiday. Though a frequent traveler previously, she had not traveled abroad for more than three years and this was her first trip overseas since the start of the pandemic.
The group was paired with a tour guide and a driver.
“My birthday fell during the trip. The tour guide prepared a celebration for me, which was such a surprise. I definitely enjoyed the tour, which included convenient services and a lot of free time,” Li said.
This year, Chinese travelers have
increasingly preferred private and tailored group tours. During the holiday, the booking volume of private tours surged nearly 900 percent compared with 2019, according to Trip.com.
Top overseas destinations included those in Asia — such as Bangkok, Thailand; Singapore; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Seoul, South Korea; and Tokyo, Japan — and the booking volume of flights to and hotels in those places largely exceeded the 2019 level, the agency said.
Hong Kong and Macao also were among the most popular destinations for Chinese mainland tourists. Tuniu Corp, a Nanjing-based online travel agency, designed a five-day tailored trip to the two cities, and the package became the best-selling option among outbound destinations on the platform.
On the first day of the holiday, more than 165,000 Chinese mainland travelers visited Hong Kong, according to the special administrative region’s Immigration Department. According to the Macao government,
some 100,000 Chinese mainland tourists visited Macao on the same day.
According to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, China has resumed outbound group tours to 60 countries and regions, most of which have canceled the requirement to provide negative nucleic acid test results. The country halted outbound group travel early in 2020 due to the pandemic.
Encouraged by the changes, Chinese travelers have shown an increasing interest in taking tours to more distant destinations. As of midApril, Trip.com had nearly sold out its group tours to Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Popular destinations included the United Arab Emirates, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Greece and Egypt, the company said.
In domestic travel, hotel booking volumes for some most popular destinations nearly doubled from prepandemic levels, and many travelers booked higher-end hotels.
According to Qunar, cities that saw the highest volumes of hotel bookings included Beijing; Shanghai; Chongqing;
Chengdu, Sichuan province; Guangzhou, Guangdong province; and Changsha, Hunan province.
“During the May Day holiday, a large number of Chinese travelers took trips for the first time in three years, and many were looking for better vacation experiences, including stays at luxury hotels,” said Guo of Qunar.
“Some smaller hotels closed due to the challenges brought by the pandemic. Chain hotels have occupied a larger market share, and some of them have lowered room prices,” Guo said.
Several smaller Chinese cities were also popular with domestic travelers. Among them were Zibo, Shandong province; Dehong, Yunnan province; and the Ili Kazak autonomous prefecture in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, which saw hotel bookings surge more than 10-fold compared with the same period in 2019, Qunar said.
The travel frenzy also drove up consumer buying levels in those cities, the agency said.
Zibo barbecue, which has become a viral topic on social media platforms, attracted many visitors to the city during the holiday. A traveler visiting Zibo might spend about 50 yuan per person to have a barbecue, but that would drive total spending of some 750 yuan for transportation and accommodation, according to a projection by Qunar’s research institute.
After three years of the pandemic, boosting consumer spending has become a priority for domestic cities. Many other cities also hoped to leverage their economic growth with featured local products just like Zibo.
“Zibo barbecue has created a national sensation. It was not only due to the delicacy itself, but also thanks to joint efforts of the local government, retailers and merchants who operated with integrity, and hospitable local residents,” Guo said.