May Day File Photo: VCG

China will see 265 million passenger trips during the 2021 May Day holidays, said the Ministry of Transport on Thursday. Different transportation volume, including highway transportation and train trips during the five-day holidays is also expected to hit a new record high, driven by spiking travel enthusiasm of Chinese people. 

According to the Ministry of Transport, on May 1, the first day of the holidays, highway trips are expected to reach beyond 60 million, breaking a historical record. Orders placed for rental cars also rose by 126 percent, compared to the pre-pandemic level in 2019. 

A total of 106 million passenger trips are expected to be made by train in China between April 29 and May 6, up 0.8 percent from the pre-pandemic level in 2019, according to the China Railway. The peak is expected to be on May 1 with more than 17 million passenger trips. 

People are also opting for long-distance travel for the holiday. According to Trip.com, more than 70 percent of tourists are choosing trips across different provinces.  

Jiang Yiyi, professor of the leisure sports and tourism school of Beijing Sport University, told the Global Times on Thursday that the upcoming May Day holidays may well be the strongest rebound in the tourism sector so far since the outbreak of the pandemic. Catering and hotel businesses are expected to see drastic profit growth compared not only with last year, but also with the same period in 2019. 

"Long holiday, or the golden week has always been a hot season for consumption in retail and catering businesses," Jiang said. "The peak in the coming May Day holidays is expected not only because of the effective containment of the pandemic, but also fast economic growth that will allow people to afford more expensive long-distance travel."

According to China Tourism Academy, in the first half of 2021, revenue generated from China's domestic travel is set to increase by 102 percent from 2020, totaling 1.28 trillion yuan ($197.87 billion).