China to see 200m passenger trips during May Day holiday

Chinese will undertake around 200 million trips during the five-day May Day holiday this year, exceeding the pre-coronavirus level at the same period in 2019, according to data from online travel agencies.

The economy-class seats on some air routes are already sold out, said Ctrip and Qunar, the online news portal ThePaper reported.

Big data from Chinese travel service and social-networking platform Mafengwo showed that the seats booked have exceeded the number recorded in same period in 2019, and the ticket price is 1,050 yuan ($160.75) on average, double of that in 2019.

On Ctrip, flight seats booked have increased 23 percent from the same period in 2019, and the ticket price is 1,021 yuan on average. On Qunar, the seats booked have exceeded the number in 2019, 24 times of 2020, and the price is 924 yuan on average, 20 percent increase from 2019.

Mafengwo data showed among the popular routes, Beijing occupies the top spot in outbound cities. Ctrip data showed top 10 destination cities are Shanghai, Beijing, Sanya, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Chongqing, Xi'an, Xiamen, Hangzhou and Shenzhen.

Data from Alibaba's online travel agency platform Fliggy showed that flights from second-tier cities to hot destinations are much cheaper than those from large cities, with an economy-class seat going for 2,250 yuan from Shanghai to Sanya but 570 yuan from Ningbo to Sanya.

As far as hotel reservations are concerned, Ctrip data showed that rooms booked for May Day holiday increased by 43 percent from the same period in 2019 and rooms of some top hotels are all booked.

Lan Xiang, Qunar's data research director, said that hotel reservations have increased during this year's Spring Festival period due to the travel demands after the restraints.

"Although many people visited relatives and travel during the Qingming Festival, many are still choosing to travel during the May Day holiday because of the length of the holiday," Lan said.

According to the vacation rental provider Airbnb, as of April 5, searches for rooms available from April 30 to May 4 at large cities and hot tourist destinations were about 10 times of that in 2020.

Under the premise of continuous effective epidemic prevention and control, some tourist spots in Shanghai, Zhengzhou of Central China's Henan province and Sichuan province have started to cancel the limits of visitors.

Ctrip data showed that as of April 14, people booking tickets at tourist spots increased by 114 percent from 2019, and the online platform predicted that ticket booking will enter an explosive period in next two weeks.