Spring Festival fuels travel boom

As domestic universities enter their winter breaks, student travel has moved into a peak period, with many returning home or heading out on holiday. At the same time, cross-border travel demand has surged, with both outbound and inbound bookings rising significantly, according to a Spring Festival travel trends report released by online travel platform Fliggy.

This Spring Festival holiday has seen a growing demand for high-quality travel and more integrated experiences. According to Fliggy, as of Jan 19, bookings for high-end hotels during the holiday have surged by nearly 70 percent year-on-year. Comprehensive experiences that include cultural performances, folk and intangible cultural heritage activities, and specialty dining have proved particularly popular, especially among families.

Escaping the cold and enjoying snow have emerged as two prominent travel trends during the holiday, driving faster booking growth in southern coastal regions and northwestern destinations. For instance, bookings in Hainan, Guangxi, Yunnan, Fujian, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, and Inner Mongolia have all recorded strong increases.

Meanwhile, international flight bookings to China for the upcoming Spring Festival have surged, with volumes more than quadrupling year-on-year in the past two weeks as of mid-January. Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Beijing and Chengdu rank among the top entry cities for overseas visitors, while travelers from Thailand, South Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore are driving much of the growth.