Domestic travel sees busiest summer in five years

The domestic travel market has embraced the busiest summer of the past five years, boosted by continuously growing demand from Chinese consumers, said major travel agencies.

Since July, booking volumes of flight tickets to some of the hottest domestic destinations jumped 40 percent compared with the same period in 2019, before the pandemic, and booking volumes of domestic hotels grew by 140 percent over 2019, according to Beijing-based online travel agency Qunar.

The most popular routes for high-speed train travel include from Beijing to Qingdao, Shandong province, and from Shanghai to Ningbo, Zhejiang province. For those routes, train tickets for some time slots sold out one week in advance, according to the company.

Meanwhile, with scorching temperatures, many tourists chose to avoid the summer heat by visiting indoor skiing venues. Between July 1 and Aug 13, sales of indoor skiing and ice skating admission tickets nationwide surged 187 percent over the previous month. Particularly, residents from provinces, such as Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu, preferred off-season skiing activities, Qunar found.

Other tourists chose to visit smaller niche destinations to avoid crowds. This summer, the booking volumes of hotels in smaller cities jumped 120 percent compared with the summer of 2019, and the bookings of high-end hotels rose significantly. Some popular smaller cities include Xianning, Hubei province; Dongying, Shandong province; and Lincang, Yunnan province, Qunar said.

"Avoiding crowds and choosing some lesser-known tourist towns has become a new way for Chinese consumers to take trips. Many tourists prefer to vacation in quiet places instead of going on sightseeing tours," said Xiao Peng, a researcher at the big data research institute of Qunar.

In addition, urbanites have been increasingly keen on taking vacations in the countryside, and booking volumes of bed-and-breakfast stays in suburban and rural areas have been popular.

So far this year, the total booking volumes of B&B stays nationwide have exceeded the total volumes recorded in the same period of 2019, according to Trip.com Group, China's leading online travel agency.

From the beginning of July to mid-August, booking volumes of B&B stays nationwide grew for six weekends consecutively. Consumers from Chengdu, Sichuan province; Chongqing; Hangzhou, Zhejiang province; and Wuhan, Hubei province, have shown the highest enthusiasm for rural trips.

By 2025, Trip.com plans to build 100 high-end village resorts in the country to attract more urban tourists. This summer, more than 10 of its village resorts located in different areas across the country have seen rooms sold out multiple times, the company said.

Rural tourism resources account for 70 percent of tourism resources nationwide, yet the number of tourists who have taken rural trips only accounts for 30 percent of total domestic tourists. Tourism consumption related to rural trips is less than 20 percent of total domestic tourism consumption, according to a report by industry research company ChinaIRN.com.

In late July, the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic regulator, released a guidance to boost domestic consumption. The statement suggests that the country vigorously develop rural tourism and build a beautiful countryside suitable for living in.

China should revitalize rural development by inheriting rural cultures and tapping more rural tourism resources. For instance, the government can help promote the implementation of rural homestay service certifications and cultivate a group of graded tourism homestays.

The government will also support business entities to develop rural tourism products such as forest homes and trails, camps and motels. Additionally, companies could create a number of new tourism formats tailored to local conditions, including landscape agriculture, farming experiences, wilderness exploration, outdoor sports and research trips, according to the document.