Tourists view cherry blossoms at a cherry garden in Gui'an New Area, southwest China's Guizhou Province, March 25, 2025. Recently, the 10,000 mu of cherry trees in Gui'an New Area have been in full bloom, attracting many tourists to come and enjoy the spring time. Gui'an New Area has integrated flower appreciation economy with characteristic agriculture, study tour and other forms of business by taking advantage of good ecological resources, an effort to promote tourism development in the surrounding areas and help increase villagers' income. (Photo: Xinhua)
China is expected to handle a daily average of 2.1 million entry-exit passenger border crossings during the upcoming Qingming Festival holidays (from Friday to Sunday), up 21.4 percent from a year earlier, the National Immigration Administration (NIA) said on Tuesday.
A number of Chinese tourism platforms released reports on travel trends for the three-day holiday, showing that traditional culture experiences, flower viewing and hiking are highly popular.
Multiple figures showed that China's tourism market is seeing stable development, mainly boosted by support policies to spur domestic consumption, an expert said, and the growing tourism sector will fuel economic growth in the second quarter.
According to the NIA, entry-exit traffic at major international airports will see a modest rise, with the Beijing Capital International Airport and Shanghai Pudong International Airport expected to handle daily passengers of 39,000 and 81,000, respectively.
Passenger crossings at land ports adjacent to the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions (SARs) are expected to see a rapid growth from the two SARs and the Taiwan island, as well as overseas Chinese returning home for ancestral worship. Daily average passenger crossings at the Zhuhai Gongbei Port and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge are expected to reach 367,000 and 123,000 respectively.
"Figures point to more passenger flows during the upcoming holidays, indicating the growth of China's tourism market, which is mainly being boosted by support policies to spur domestic consumption," Jiang Yiyi, an expert on sports and tourism at Beijing Sport University, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
In addition, China has made significant efforts to optimize its entry-exit policies, such as streamlining visa procedures, expanding unilateral visa-free policies and enhancing multilingual services, effectively boosting the country's appeal to international tourists, Jiang said.
China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun on Tuesday said that "We will further expand our visa-free 'circle of friends' and roll out more facilitation measures for cross-border travel. We welcome more foreign friends to visit China in this beautiful spring."
As the first major holiday following the Spring Festival, Qingming has spurred a spike in travel bookings.
According to a statement sent to the Global Times on Tuesday, Trip.com said that, as of March 25, bookings for short-term tours increased by 136 percent month-on-month, with cities like Hangzhou, Nanjing and Jinan becoming the top three travel destinations.
Spring activities like flower viewing and hiking are in vogue. Flower tour bookings are up 55 percent month-on-month. Domestic destinations where people go to enjoy flowers, including Wuxi and Huangshan Mountain, have seen orders increase by 35 percent and 50 percent, respectively, compared with a year earlier.
Outbound destinations like Jeju Island of South Korea have seen bookings rise 65 percent, and bookings for Kyoto of Japan have increased by 75 percent, data from Trip. com showed.
Another Chinese tourism platform, Fliggy, noted that the number of bookings for domestic car rental services during the Qingming holidays increased by 33 percent year-on-year, while the number of bookings for outbound train tickets surged by more than 200 percent.
Shennongjia Forestry District in Hubei Province, Zhongwei in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, and Hami in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region have seen fastest growths of visitor bookings, thanks to scenic landscapes and convenient transport. Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Singapore remain as the top outbound destinations, Fliggy said.
In addition to appreciating beautiful scenery, taking part in traditional cultural activities such as wearing
hanfu to visit museums and participating in ancient ritual tomb-sweeping ceremonies have stimulated modern cultural tourism consumption.
Chinese travel agency Tongcheng Travel told the Global Times that for the upcoming 2025 Qingming festival holidays, searches for traditional cultural folk experiences, such as spring outings, tea picking and spring garden tours, have surged by 75 percent year-on-year. Beijing, Nanjing, Xi'an, Chongqing and Suzhou ranked among the top historical and cultural destinations for travelers.
Domestic tourism searches related to sports events and music performances surged by 48 percent year-on-year, with some popular study tours featuring artificial intelligence and intangible cultural heritage selling out 20 days in advance, Tongcheng Travel said.
"Cross-sector collaborations including culture, tourism and commerce are being highlighted during this year's holidays, and it has injected fresh vitality into the tourism market. The combination of outdoor activities, sports events and rural tourism has diversified travel experiences, attracting diverse groups of tourists," Jiang said.
Jiang also noted the importance of government's efforts to strictly implement the paid annual leave system. "These policies have a clear impact on unleashing consumption potential especially in the tourism sector, and booming tourism consumption will drive related industries, including catering and accommodation, providing impetus to economic growth in the second quarter," the expert said.
