As the Spring Festival approaches, many people have already arranged travel activities during the Spring Festival holiday. According to predictions from the railway and civil aviation departments, passenger traffic during the Spring Festival this year is expected to hit a record high; judging from the current booking data of major online travel platforms, domestic travel and inbound and outbound travel orders have shown substantial growth, and this year may usher in the biggest growth in recent years. The hot Spring Festival cultural tourism market.
Tourists from North and South exchange New Year celebrations
The popularity of Harbin, the first Internet celebrity city in 2024, is extending from the New Year's Day holiday to the Spring Festival holiday. On Ctrip.com, Harbin travel booking orders increased by more than 14 times year-on-year; Tujia B&B data showed that Harbin B&B bookings increased by 38.5 times year-on-year. Harbin’s popularity has not only promoted the development of the local tourism market, but also led to the overall heating of the ice and snow tourism market in the entire Northeast and even the country. A report from Tuniu Travel Network shows that group tour products during the Spring Festival period such as Harbin, Changbai Mountain, Yabuli, and Mohe have been basically sold out by mid-December 2023. The popularity of travel in Northeastern cities such as Changchun, Shenyang, Mudanjiang, Jilin, and Yanbian has welcomed In addition, some niche destinations in Northeast China such as Hegang, Qitaihe, Yichun, etc. are also expected to become emerging tourist cities.
Some people go north to see the snow, while others go south to avoid the cold. There is a trend of residents from the north and the south exchanging their New Year greetings. On the Ctrip platform, booking orders for travel products in cities such as Sanya and Kunming, which are favored by northern tourists for winter escapes, increased by more than 2 times and 6 times respectively year-on-year. Data from Tongcheng Travel Platform shows that since January, the search popularity for Sanya tourism has increased by 302% month-on-month, and the popularity of Zhoushan tourism search has increased by 242% month-on-month.
Driven by ice and snow tours and cold escape tours, the Spring Festival cultural tourism market has seen an overall rise in popularity. Fliggy platform data shows that so far, bookings for the Spring Festival holiday in multiple categories including hotels, car rentals, cruises, and group tours have exceeded the same period in 2019. Among them, hotel bookings increased 1.6 times compared with the same period in 2019, and group tours increased by 1.6 times compared with the same period in 2019. Tourism increased by 34% compared with the same period in 2019; in addition to popular tourist destinations, holiday travel bookings in non-provincial capital cities such as Quanzhou, Zhuhai, Foshan, Beihai, Luoyang, Ningbo, Taizhou, Qingdao, Yantai, Yangzhou and other non-provincial capital cities grew at the same rate year-on-year. More than 20 times.
Family travel has become one of the new hot spots during this year’s Spring Festival holiday. Fliggy platform data shows that so far, the number of domestic group tour bookings for families traveling has increased 16 times year-on-year, and the proportion of air ticket orders involving infants and children has more than doubled month-on-month. In addition, bookings for chartered tours, customized tours, and park tickets related to family travel increased by more than 10 times year-on-year. The latest data from Tuniu Travel Network also shows that among users who booked winter vacation travel, parent-child travel accounted for nearly 54%, and bookings for theme parks, islands, ice and snow, study and other tourism products were hot.
Various activities are rich and colorful
The cultural tourism market becomes more popular during the Spring Festival, and the battle to “rob people” is about to break out in various places. In addition to launching fancy marketing on the Internet, various places have also spent a lot of real money and sent out "cultural tourism gift packages" to "add fuel" to the Spring Festival market. For example, many scenic spots in Guangxi, Tibet, Henan, Fujian and other places have opened Measures such as mutual exemption of tickets, free admission, half-price discount and other measures.
At the same time, in order to give full play to the unique advantages of culture and tourism in creating a festive atmosphere, stimulating economic consumption, and enhancing people’s sense of happiness and gain, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism recently announced that from January 18 to March 11, all regions across the country will Organize and carry out the "Happy New Year" 2024 Spring Festival themed cultural and tourism activities, which will include 25 themed activities in seven major sections, using high-quality cultural and tourism products to enrich the people's holiday life and satisfy the people's needs for a happy New Year. Good needs.
“On January 25, we held the 2024 National Spring Festival Culture and Tourism Consumption Month home event in Harbin. Together with relevant industry associations, financial institutions, and leading cultural and tourism enterprises, we released high-quality cultural and tourism products, consumption scenarios, promotion activities, and benefits. Measures for the public." Ma Li, deputy director of the Industrial Development Department of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, introduced that during the Spring Festival, China UnionPay will issue "100 cities and 100 districts" New Year cultural and tourism consumption vouchers with local governments, covering the entire chain of "food, accommodation, travel, shopping and entertainment"; It has joined forces with 200,000 merchants to jointly launch the "Great New Year Discounts for Payment with UnionPay" campaign to provide generous discounts for people returning home during the Spring Festival; it will also work with commercial banks to carry out a number of consumption-promoting actions around theme parks, hotels, travel and other cultural and tourism scenes. Stimulate the potential of holiday consumption, so that people can get benefits and enterprises can really benefit.
"Since last year, the development of the stage performance market has shown a new trend. Watching performances and traveling following performances have become new hot spots. Everyone is pursuing literary and artistic masterpieces with high cultural content, high artistic quality, and high emotional experience. Offline, online, The performances and broadcasts are all showing a fiery scene." Zhang Yi, deputy director of the Art Department of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, said that the 10 national-level art troupes directly under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism will bring audiences including "Only Green" and "Li Bai" The performance activities, which are loved by the audience, bring unique and wonderful performances to the masses.
In order to enrich the spiritual and cultural life of young people during the winter vacation and Spring Festival, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism will guide various regions to carry out "Colorful Study Tour to China", "Guarding the Beautiful Yangtze River Theme Study Tour Activities", "Into the Forest and Snowfields - Ice and Snow Theme Study Tours", etc. "Study tourism is a new industry that integrates education and tourism. In recent years, it has been deeply loved by the people, especially the majority of teenagers." Liu Dongyan, deputy director of the Department of Science, Technology and Education of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, said that during this year's event, various regions will launch a variety of activities for teenagers. Various study and tourism projects advocate the provision of product and service discounts, ticket exemptions and other measures to benefit the people.
Inbound and outbound tourism becomes more popular
Since the beginning of this year, many countries have introduced favorable visa policies, allowing many families to choose to travel abroad during the Spring Festival holiday. For example, Malaysia announced that Chinese citizens will be exempted from visas within 30 days of entry, and Thailand announced that China and Thailand will permanently exempt each other’s citizens from visas starting in March.
Fliggy platform data shows that so far, outbound travel bookings have increased by more than 15 times year-on-year and are close to the level of 2019. Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Malaysia, Australia, etc. are popular destinations for outbound travel. Compared with 2023, popular destinations for outbound travel are expanding from the "4-hour flight circle" to the "12-hour flight circle". A number of new outbound travel destinations are emerging rapidly, such as Russia, Egypt, Serbia, Morocco, Norway, etc. On the Tongcheng travel platform, popular destinations for outbound travel during the Spring Festival are mainly concentrated in Southeast Asia. In addition, the popularity of medium and long-term outbound travel destination countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Australia has increased significantly.
"Currently, our Spring Festival outbound travel booking volume is close to the same period in 2019, and it is expected that 2024 will be a relatively stable and sustained recovery period." said Jia Jianqiang, founder and CEO of 6-person Travel Customized Travel.
In addition, strong demand for commercial and educational travel will also support the continued recovery of the market in 2024. "The outbound tourism market is gradually recovering, tourism demand continues to grow, and various new policies and tourism models will provide Chinese tourists with more travel options and better travel experiences." Jia Jianqiang said.
As the effects of a number of entry facilitation measures recently introduced by my country have gradually emerged, the demand for inbound tourism during the Spring Festival has been released. Ctrip data shows that during the Spring Festival, inbound travel orders increased more than 10 times year-on-year. The main source countries are Japan, the United States, South Korea, Malaysia, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Vietnam, Germany, Thailand, etc. Domestic travel destinations that are popular among foreign tourists Including Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Harbin and other cities. (Our reporter Zhang Xue)
Source: Economic Daily