With the Qingming Festival holiday just over, many Chinese have started booking trips for the five-day Labor Day holiday starting on May 1. While short-distance and regional travel dominates during Qingming, Chinese tourists will choose inter-provincial and overseas tours during the May 1 holiday. Especially with the recent increase in visa applications, overseas travel is expected to boom.
Data from China's leading online travel agency Ctrip shows that since the end of February, the number of overseas tourist visa applications during the Labor Day holiday has increased significantly, with a weekly growth rate of 50%. So far, the number of visa applicants during the holiday has increased by more than 30% compared to last year, and the transaction volume has also exceeded the same period in 2019.
Ctrip data also shows that the number of searches for international flight tickets during May Day increased sharply by 56% compared to the same period in 2023. Of which, the number of international travel bookings in Beijing increased by 93%, Shanghai increased by 87% and Guangzhou increased by 104%.
According to the person in charge of visa services on the Ctrip platform, revealed to the Chinese Business Daily, Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, the US, Indonesia, Australia, France and Vietnam are the favorite foreign destinations. Countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative such as Qatar, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan... also have a relatively high increase in orders compared to the same period.
Meanwhile, according to travel company Tong Cheng, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo, Phuket, Singapore, Osaka, Seoul, Dubai, Ho Chi Minh City and Chiang Mai are the hottest foreign tourist destinations.
According to Beijing-based Utour, the total volume of its May Day outbound travel products has increased by 200% year-on-year. So far, the number of tourists using Utour's platform products has also increased by about 370% year-on-year.
Chinese experts believe that the surge in tour bookings could be due to many factors, such as increased personnel exchanges between countries, many countries implementing visa exemption policies for Chinese citizens, and the increasing demand for overseas travel among Chinese people.
The China Tourism Research Institute predicts that the number of Chinese tourists going abroad will reach 130 million this year.
Source
Comment (0)