Tourists watch a video promoting Tianjin's cultural tourism on a newly installed screen while taking the Tientsin Eye Ferris wheel, in north China's Tianjin, April 27, 2023. The Tientsin Eye Ferris wheel, also known as the Tianjin Eye, one of the city's landmarks, has been renovated for the upcoming Labor Day holiday. Photo:Xinhua

 
China's tourism enthusiasm led to a rise in demand for travel in the coming three-day Dragon Boat Festival holidays, with outbound tour bookings surging over 12 times year-on-year, according to data released on Tuesday by Ctrip, a major online travel agency in China.

According to a report sent to the Global Times, the agency said that during this year's Dragon Boat Festival holidays, the average price of hotels and airline tickets in domestic and popular outbound destinations will be lower than for the May Day holidays.

Currently on the Ctrip platform, the average price of outbound one-way air tickets including taxes during the upcoming holidays is about 6 percent lower than the price during the May Day holidays.

Many outbound travelers choose their destinations based on proximity and visa convenience, with many flights within three hours gaining popularity, including flights from Shanghai to Osaka and flights from Beijing to Tokyo. 

The company said that its popular products including an Air Macau round-trip for two and a Singapore Airlines economy class round-trip saw a redemption boom during the Dragon Boat Festival, with the gross merchandise value exceeding 100 million yuan ($13.98 million).

Domestic trips are also on the rise compared with the same period of the previous year.

Data from Ctrip showed that of the current bookings, the top 10 popular domestic destinations for the three-day holidays include Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Nanjing.

As of Tuesday, orders for Beijing increased more than 20 times year-on-year, and bookings for Shanghai scenic spots surged 24 times. Zibo in East China's Shandong Province has seen bookings rising 92 times for the Dragon Boat Festival holidays.

The China Railway Shanghai Bureau Group estimated that during this year's holidays, railway lines in the Yangtze River Delta area will carry about 15 million passengers, an increase of more than 20 percent from same period in 2019, which was before the COVID-19 pandemic.

On June 8, Ctrip announced unaudited financial results for the first quarter of 2023, with net revenue increasing more than 1.2 times year-on-year, surpassing the same period in 2019.

The company noted that with the removal of most travel restrictions in China, the company has seen a significant recovery in the country's tourism market.

Data showed that in the first quarter, the company's domestic hotel bookings rose 150 percent compared with the same period of 2019; bookings for outbound hotels and tickets have recovered to 40 percent of pre-epidemic levels.

Ctrip co-founder Liang Jianzhang said that in the first three months, the company's overall hotel bookings hit an all-time high, growing more than 100 percent year-on-year and by 40 percent over 2019. 

"People are starting to gradually shake off the impact of the epidemic and get back on the road to explore the world. We remain confident in the long-term outlook for the travel industry," Liang noted.

Experts said that following the travel surge during the May Day holidays, the upcoming Dragon Boat holidays are expected to be another catalyst to bolster domestic demand and consumption. 

The holidays, together with summer vacation tourism, are poised to play a driving role for consumption growth in the second quarter, observers added.

A total of 274 million domestic trips were made during the May Day holidays with domestic tourism revenue reaching 148.056 billion yuan, in both cases surpassing the 2019 pre-COVID levels, according to data released by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.