China's tourism to see a thriving May Day holiday

China's tourism industry will see a thriving May Day holiday (April 29 to May 3) in comparison to recent years, with hotels already sold out in advance and outbound group trips fully booked, ThePaper reported on Wednesday.

Chinese travel service and social networking platform Mafengwo showed that, in the past week, the popularity of "May Day holiday travel" on its website has increased by over 150 percent compared to a week earlier, with continuous upward trending.

In Mafengwo's advanced bookings for the holiday, over 70 percent are for long-distance travel. Sanya, Kunming, Chengdu, Chongqing and Guiyang have seen the highest increase in popularity among those destinations.

Forecast data from the online travel agency Tongcheng Travel released on April 11 shows that the demand for domestic long-distance trips and outbound trips is expected to surge during this year's May Day holiday.

Bookings for long-distance trips to Yunnan, Hainan, Sichuan and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region during the holiday rose by 15 times compared to the 5 days before the holiday, said the report citing data from Tongcheng Travel.

Domestic bookings for the five-day May Day holiday on Meituan increased 200 percent compared to 2019 as of April 10, the highest in five years, of which accommodation bookings were at the same level as April 25, 2019, two weeks earlier than in 2019.

According to data from Ctrip, the May Day holiday travel bookings to Dali in Yunnan province have exceeded 190 percent of the level in 2019, while bookings to Weihai in Shandong province have increased by 300 percent.

Some sea-view hotel rooms near Erhai Lake in Dali during the holiday have already been fully booked, and a sea-view suite worth 11,450 yuan ($1,663.02) on Ctrip's platform has also been sold out.

The resumption of international flights has been great news for May Day outbound travel. Ctrip data shows that, as of April 6, the overall booking for overseas travel products has increased by more than 18 times year-on-year.

The search for overseas air tickets for the holiday rose by nine times year-on-year, with the average price of outbound one-way air tickets at 2,564 yuan, down 58 percent from last year.

Overseas island tours have become the most popular destination for young people during the five-day holiday, with the popularity of it increasing by over 80 percent from April 3 to 9, said the report citing data from Mafengwo.

The search for outbound travel products on the Tongcheng Travel website rose by 42 percent compared to the previous week, with Singapore, Maldives and Thailand seeing a seven-fold increase in bookings for the May Day holiday.