Reservations for overseas travel for the Labor Day holiday 18 times last year’s most preferred destination is Thailand… Hong Kong, Japan, etc.
Overseas travel by Chinese is expected to surge during the five-day Labor Day Golden Week holiday (April 29-May 3). It is expected that the number of Chinese tourists will increase even in Korea, which is a popular tourist destination, due to so-called “retaliation tourism,” in which travel sentiment suppressed by Corona 19 explodes with quarantine mitigation.
On the 12th, according to reports such as the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China, online travel agency Ctrip announced in its recent May Day travel forecast report that the number of overseas travel product reservations during this period increased more than 18 times compared to the same period last year.
The number of package tour applications has increased by 157% compared to the beginning of this month.
According to Ctrip flight ticket data, during the Labor Day holiday period, the search volume for overseas flight tickets increased more than 9 times compared to the same period last year.
Thailand, which includes Bangkok and Phuket, was the most popular overseas travel destination for Chinese people. It was followed by Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Korea, Macau, the United States and Indonesia.
This increase in overseas travel is analyzed as an effect of the recent Chinese authorities’ COVID-19 quarantine mitigation and the trend of consumption recovery that has been continuing since the Lunar New Year (Chinese Lunar New Year).
After easing quarantine at the end of last year, China lifted its border blockade this year and allowed its own citizens overseas group tours, designating 60 countries as countries that allow group tours.
Domestic travel bookings in China have recovered to levels seen in 2019, before the outbreak of COVID-19.
Popular tourist destinations are the resort islands of Sanya, Beijing, Guilin, Zhangjiajie, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Lijiang, Dali, Xishuangbanna, Jiuzhaigou, and Weihai on Hainan Island.
Most of the flights to popular tourist destinations and local hotels are sold out as tourists flock.
Life service platform Meituan said, “The number of reservations for domestic lodging, transportation, and tourist attraction tickets during the Labor Day holiday increased by 200% compared to the same period in 2019, the highest level in five years.”
Reporter Lee Jung-soo