China to see first travel peak of 2021 during Qingming Festival

The Qingming Festival, or Tomb-sweeping Day holiday, which falls on April 4 this year, may lead to the first domestic travel peak of 2021, due to the progress that has been made in China's prevention and control efforts against the COVID-19 epidemic.

Visitors enjoy the view at a cole flower field in Baofeng County, central China's Henan Province, March 28, 2021. (Xinhua/He Wuchang)

The number of Chinese tourists during the holiday will hit 100 million, reaching the level of the same period in 2019, according to a report from China’s top online travel agency Ctrip.com.

The tourism industry is currently seeing a peak of orders for tourism products. Data from Alibaba’s tourism platform Fliggy.com showed that bookings for air tickets during the holiday soared more than 150 percent last week, while reservations made by inter-provincial travelers rose over 170 percent. The number of bookings for hotels and rural homestays surged by more than 140 percent and 165 percent, respectively, while car rental bookings increased over 140 percent.

Lan Xiang, a data specialist with online travel service provider qunar.com, said that flight ticket bookings for the Qingming Festival on the platform grew by 1.3 times from the same period in 2019. In addition, airfare also bounced back to pre-epidemic levels, with the average price standing at 689 yuan (about $105), Lan added.

Tibet, Xinjiang, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Hainan are the most popular travel destinations, according to qunar.com. Data from the platform indicated a notable change – tourists’ travel choices have become more diverse. For example, Qionghai city recorded the largest percentage of gains in hotel bookings in Hainan, outpacing the coastal cities of Sanya and Haikou.

Online searches for travel to Xinjiang have also soared recently. The keyword search volume for “travel to Xinjiang in April,” “tips for travel in Xinjiang,” “recreational vehicle tours in Xinjiang,” and “independent travel in Ili” grew by 275 percent, 74 percent, 91 percent, and 200 percent, respectively, according to statistics from Chinese travel service and social-networking platform Mafengwo.

Meanwhile, online searches for red tourism products recorded a 150-percent year-on-year spike last week, data from another online travel agency Tongcheng-eLong showed.