Bookings surge during June 18 shopping gala

With summer vacation fast approaching, the domestic travel market witnessed a surge in bookings during the recently concluded June 18 online shopping carnival, and sales of long-distance travel products have seen marked recovery and growth, industry players observed.

Traditionally, the sales event has occurred solely on June 18, but some companies have extended the period to begin before and end after that date. Regardless, the event is generally still referred to as the June 18 online shopping carnival.

A promotional shopping event held by Fliggy, the online travel arm of Alibaba Group, began on May 18 and ended on June 20. The platform saw the number of travel product orders it received surge 160 percent year-on-year, and the number of consumers who made purchases was double last year's figure.

"Consumers' enthusiasm for buying tourism products has significantly exceeded our expectations. Many people have already made reservations or set out right after their purchases. In the next few months, domestic travel demand is expected to continue to recover," said Cheng Chen, a director at Fliggy.

"During this year's June 18 shopping gala, we reached our sales goals a week earlier than expected. Some of our bestselling products quickly ran out of stock, so we had to replenish them multiple times," Cheng said.

Hi-Road, an online platform that provides travelers with self-driving routes and services, said it had previously prepared a stock of 1,000 travel-related goods for the June 18 shopping festival period. "All the products were sold out only two days after we launched them — much faster than we expected," said Wang Yan, operational director of Hi-Road.

Chinese consumers' willingness to spend is increasing. This year, the amount of money that they plan to spend for domestic travel is expected to surge 169 percent over last year, about 96 percent of the pre-pandemic level in 2019, according to a research report from Bank of Communication International.

Fliggy said during this year's June 18 shopping spree, four retailers operating on the platform saw their transaction values exceed 100 million yuan ($13.9 million). Nearly 80 percent of retailers' sales revenues jumped more than 50 percent year-on-year.

For domestic travel packages, the transaction value this year was more than six times higher than the value seen during the shopping festival period last year. Moreover, the number of travel agencies that saw their transaction values exceed 10 million yuan tripled over last year, Fliggy said.

The sales growth of high-end products has been particularly strong. Luxury hotels and bed-and-breakfast stays, and vouchers for business-class seats on airplanes and high-end car rentals have been sought after by consumers, Fliggy found.

Shanghai Hyakumangoku Onsen Hotel, a Japanese-style hotel equipped with hot springs, has seen a boom in bookings. During the June 18 shopping gala, it rapidly sold more than 1,000 two-night stay packages.