China News Service, February 1 (China News reporter Zhang Ni) The Lunar New Year is getting closer and closer. During the longest Spring Festival holiday in history, it is a matter of suspense which city will usher in a "good start" for cultural tourism in the Year of the Dragon. Some platforms predict that this year's Spring Festival tourism will focus on "visiting from north to south." Judging from the booking situation, bookings for homestays in cities such as Quanzhou have soared.
Will the next "Erbin" appear in the south?
Data map: West Street, a thousand-year-old ancient street in Quanzhou, Fujian
The B&B hotel is slow and the price has doubled
"We grabbed the last room in the B&B we liked. We didn't expect this city to be so popular."
Mr. Jia, who lives in Beijing, planned to travel to Quanzhou, Fujian Province during the Spring Festival. He started booking hotels and air tickets just after New Year's Day. Unexpectedly, many popular internet celebrity B&Bs had already been sold out.
"We grabbed the last room in a B&B near West Street on January 3. The price was more than 1,300 yuan per night. Normally, the price of this B&B is only about 500 yuan. Many people may have booked rooms before New Year's Day. We were both late to the game, but because we liked it better, we decided to order it.”
Mr. Jia said that not only hotels are in high demand, but also air tickets to Quanzhou during the holidays. He also booked a round-trip air ticket to Quanzhou in early January. At that time, many "prime time" flights did not have many remaining tickets.
"When we checked the return flight the next day, we already had no tickets. Fortunately, we made a decisive decision."
As Mr. Jia said, reporters recently searched on the platform and found that Quanzhou is a destination for many tourists during the Spring Festival. Near West Street, a popular tourist area in Quanzhou, many Internet celebrity B&Bs have been fully booked. Some B&Bs are only available for New Year's Eve or There are still free rooms on the first day of the Lunar New Year, and the room prices are one to two times more expensive than usual.
Data map: Yangshuo West Street is crowded with tourists. Photo by Zhou Lishuo
"Visiting from north to south" is popular during the Spring Festival holiday
"Actually, my hometown has become popular since the second half of last year. The passenger flow has been very high until now. Hotels and B&Bs in popular areas during holidays start at about 700 yuan."
Mr. Wei, whose hometown is in Quanzhou, told reporters that the number of tourists in his hometown has increased significantly since May 2023. He works in Fuzhou, and every time he returns to his hometown, he can see tourists from all over the world wearing hairpins coming to Quanzhou to check in. .
"Perhaps Hairpin Hua got out of the circle due to the star effect."
However, in Mr. Wei's view, Quanzhou does have many unique advantages as a tourist destination during the Spring Festival holiday. On the one hand, as a southeastern coastal city, Quanzhou has a suitable climate during the Spring Festival, which is attractive to tourists, especially many northern tourists. On the other hand, the city itself also has a profound cultural connotation, which is antique and full of flavor.
"Although Quanzhou is an ancient city, its folk propaganda is very young and very distinctive." Mr. Wei commented.
It is worth noting that this Spring Festival, Quanzhou is not "outstanding". The reporter searched on the tourism platform and found that not only Quanzhou, but also many cities in Fujian are expected to welcome a large number of tourists during the Spring Festival.
Take Xiamen, a long-established and popular destination, as an example. Currently, the prices of many hotels and B&Bs have doubled or tripled, and there are not many rooms left in popular hotels. Even in Xiapu, Ningde, which is usually known as a "niche destination", the prices of many B&Bs are twice as high as usual, and some popular hotels and B&Bs have been fully booked.
Outside of Fujian, some tourist destinations in Sichuan, Guangxi and other places have also continued to be popular. Internet celebrity hotels in Guilin, Beihai and other places are also "hard to find a room", and prices have soared.
Data map: The "full moon" rises over Sophia Church. Photo by Zhang Yuxin
Who will compete for the next "Erbin"?
Earlier, the "2024 Spring Festival Holiday Travel Vane" released by Fliggy showed that "folk tours", "cultural tours" and "paradise tours" have become the most popular travel methods for many families, with holiday travel bookings in non-provincial capital cities such as Quanzhou, Beihai and Luoyang. The volume increased by more than 20 times year-on-year.
In addition, Tongcheng Travel released its 2024 Spring Festival travel trend forecast report this month and also announced the top ten popular destinations for domestic travel during the 2024 Spring Festival.
In terms of travel, "seeing snow in the north" and "escape from the cold in the south" run through the Spring Festival holiday. Among them, Harbin has become the most popular domestic tourist destination during the Spring Festival holiday in 2024. The popular destinations ranking 2-10 in domestic tourism are: Chongqing and Beijing. , Chengdu, Guangzhou, Kunming, Guiyang, Xi'an, Shanghai, and Shenzhen.
The above-mentioned report analyzes that in addition to the most popular ice and snow tourism, hot spring tourism is also one of the popular travel themes during the 2024 Spring Festival holiday. Guangdong, Fujian, and Sichuan are the most popular hot spring tourism destinations.
At present, it is still unclear who will compete to become the "Erbin" during this year's Spring Festival holiday, but Spring Festival forecast data from multiple OTA platforms show that the upcoming long holiday will be the first travel peak in the Year of the Dragon. (over)