Travel agencies and tourism experts bullish on May Day holiday

Travel agencies and tourism experts are confident about the tourism market's performance in the upcoming May Day holiday, or the International Workers' Day holiday, with both domestic and outbound tourism visits projected to boom during the period.

Their confidence also lies in Chinese people's strong consumption power in tourism in past quarter. Recent figures unveiled by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism show that in first three months, the number of domestic tourism visits reached almost 1.8 billion, up by 26.4 percent year-on-year. These domestic tourism travels generated tourism-related consumption of about 1.8 trillion yuan ($250 billion) with a year-on-year growth of 18.6 percent.

With a five-day vacation from May 1 to May 5, the May Day holiday is the last long holiday in the first half of the year. Travel agencies said that tourism bookings have so far delivered conspicuous results, based on which, they estimated the domestic tourism market will outperform that in the previous two years.

Travel portal Tuniu said that by mid-April, tourism bookings bound to domestic destinations at the platform have increased by 100 percent from the same period of last year. Trip.com Group, also a travel portal, said that in the week until April 17, searches for domestic hotels at its platform surged by 100 percent from the previous week, and searches for flight tickets to domestic scenic spots increased by 80 percent.

Qi Chunguang, vice-president of travel portal Tuniu, holds bullish view on the tourism market's performance in the coming holiday. He said that domestic long-distance tours and overseas short-distance tours have shown strong growth and self-driving tours and self-guided tours will continue to see remarkable increase with the holiday approaching.

Travel agencies have noticed that cities with music festivals or concerts, such as Beijing and Guangzhou in southern province of Guangdong, will be a hit among travelers. Qunar, an online travel agency, said that hotel bookings in Haikou in southern coastal province of Hainan has so far surged by 3.4 times at its platform, as the popular boy band Teens in Times will hold their concert in the city during the holiday.

Also, smaller cities, counties or towns have gone trending, especially among the young people who seek unique and niche experiences. These lesser-known but trending destinations include Pingtan county in Fujian province, Yangshuo in Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and Anji county in Zhejiang, said Qunar.

"I just wish to go to a place without crowds of people and become a 'couch potato' over the holiday. It's a good time to escape from work and I will let myself fully immerse in the nature," said Li Miao, 31, from Shanghai, who will spend four days and three nights in Anji, Zhejiang — famous for beautiful countryside scenes and well-designed homestays — over the holiday.

Travel agencies and tourism experts have also placed high hopes on the performance of outbound and inbound tourism market during the May Day holiday.

Trip.com Group gave its figures that the car renting bookings at overseas destinations is estimated to raise by 25 percent year-on-year over the holiday. Overseas top destinations remain those with shorter traveling hours, including Japan, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, South Korea, Thailand and Singapore, while more new trending destinations have emerged thanks to optimized visa policies or adding of flights such as Qatar, Austria and Kazakhstan, said the group.

"My husband and I will ask for extra two days' leave, so that we can have a seven-day break for our trip to Norway," said Song Haiyan, 34, from Beijing, who will head for the country on May 1. She said that the month of May is not a traditional peak season to Norway so it's an economical choice for them.

Trip.com Group said the inbound tourism will also embrace an increase over the holiday thanks to the optimized entry and tax refund policies. The group said that videos by YouTube star Darren Jason Watkins Jr, or IShowSpeed with about 39.2 million subscribers, is also a hit among international travelers after he shared his recent travel experience in China.

The group said that searches for hotels on the Chinese mainland has so far surged by 200 percent at its platform and inbound tourism bookings increased by 173 percent by mid-April. Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou remain top choices to international travelers, who mainly come from South Korea, Japan, Singapore and Russia, said the group.