People in Shanghai watch the football match on the night of the opening of the 2022 World Cup on November 20, enjoying the fun of the event every four years. Photo:IC

The kick-off of the long-awaited 2022 Qatar World Cup has ignited enthusiasm among fans all over the world, and it has also set off a surge in hotel bookings in China, as indicated by several online travel platforms.

The number of hotel reservations especially for watching the event across the country on Sunday night, the opening ceremony of the World Cup, increased by more than 30 times month-on-month, according to data that Tongcheng Travel sent to the Global Times on Monday.

Young people (under the age of 25) were the main guests, accounting for 64 percent of the total.

Men are still the main audience for soccer watching rooms, but the female fan base is also expanding. Bookings by men accounted for 63 percent of the rooms, and women for the rest. Young people under the age of 25 accounted for more than 90 percent of the female fans who booked rooms.

Shanghai, Changsha, Wuhan, Xi'an and Hangzhou were the cities with the most reservations, while Sanya was the city with the most expensive bookings, with each night costing more than 300 yuan ($42), Tongcheng said.

According to Trip.com, as of Friday, the number of hotel packages with the keyword "World Cup" on the platform had increased by nearly 40 percent compared with the previous day, and the number of hotels covered increased by more than 30 percent compared with the previous day.

A soccer fan surnamed Liu told the Global Times that is looking for a room to watch the games with other fans in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province or Shanghai, the two most visited cities for him, and they don't have to worry about making too much noise.

The number of air ticket bookings and hotel bookings in Doha, the capital of Qatar, has increased significantly in the past week, data from travel platform qunar.com showed. As of Wednesday, the number of searches for air tickets to Doha in the past week had increased by nearly 10 times compared with the previous week, and the number of air ticket bookings nearly doubled via qunar.com.

Global Times