The Paper reporter Tang Yingying
The longest Spring Festival holiday in history has officially come to an end. Reports released by multiple online travel platforms show that the 8-9 day holiday has lengthened the travel time and distance during the Spring Festival.
Before the Spring Festival, China has unilaterally exempted visas for many countries, mutually exempted visas from "Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand", launched a series of inbound tourism facilitation measures and many other favorable measures, allowing Chinese and foreign tourists to "go in both directions" during the Spring Festival this year, with outbound travel and inbound travel Tour orders exceeded the same period in 2019. Ctrip’s report shows that this also indicates that starting from the Spring Festival in 2024, outbound and inbound tourism are expected to enter a new channel of accelerated recovery.
Outbound tourism hits a four-year peak, with bookings increasing nearly 10 times year-on-year
"I really didn't expect that there were a bunch of Chinese people, and the entire box when taking the cable car was Chinese." Mariko, who went abroad to experience the Arctic scenery during the Spring Festival holiday, was surprised to meet so many Chinese tourists. "I don't seem to have arrived at the North Pole. I seem to be still on the streets of Xidan." Yuanzi joked.
During the Spring Festival of the Year of the Dragon, as the holiday lengthens, China’s “visa-free circle of friends” continues to expand, and the travel radius of tourists expands, Chinese tourists once again make the Spring Festival a peak season for global tourism.
Fliggy data shows that during this year’s Spring Festival holiday, outbound travel hit a four-year peak, with bookings increasing nearly 10 times year-on-year. Among the top 30 overseas destinations, Spring Festival holiday bookings exceeded more than half of the same period in 2019.
Ctrip data shows that during the Spring Festival, Ctrip’s outbound car orders increased by 53% compared with 2019, and overseas scenic spot ticket orders increased by more than 130% compared with 2019. On the Qunar platform, international hotel bookings during the Spring Festival increased 4.7 times year-on-year, and international air ticket bookings increased 14 times year-on-year.
Among them, travel orders from Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and other "Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand" visa-free countries have grown significantly.
Ctrip data shows that during the Spring Festival, the total travel orders from "Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand" increased by more than 30% compared with 2019. On the Qunar platform, air tickets to Singapore during the Spring Festival increased 29 times year-on-year, Kuala Lumpur increased 20 times year-on-year, and Bangkok increased 16 times year-on-year.
Medium- and long-term outbound travel has also experienced high growth. Orders from “Belt and Road” countries such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, and the Maldives have increased significantly, with increases of more than 800%, 60%, 40%, and 40% respectively compared with 2019. Orders from long-distance countries such as the United Kingdom, Argentina, and Norway also increased significantly, with increases of over 60%, 40%, and 200% respectively compared with 2019.
On the Qunar platform, destinations such as Melbourne in Australia, London in the United Kingdom, Istanbul in Turkey, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, Auckland in New Zealand, and Cairo in Egypt with direct flights of more than 10 hours have also become popular cities for outbound travel during the Spring Festival. It is worth mentioning that on the Qunar platform, the farthest ticket for this year’s Spring Festival was from Singapore to New York on February 16, with a non-stop flight time of more than 18 hours.
According to statistics from the Qunar platform, during the Spring Festival holiday this year, Chinese tourists visited 125 countries around the world, including Ethiopia and Madagascar in Africa; Cuba and Uruguay in South America; and Lithuania, Monaco, Malta and other countries in Europe.
The eight-day long holiday also makes the tourism "special forces" more international. During the Spring Festival, the most "special forces" users on the Qunar platform visited five countries: Russia, Singapore, Japan, Thailand, and Malaysia; the tourists who spent the longest time on vacation spent a total of 31 days in Bangkok, Thailand, during the Spring Festival.
The number of mainland tourists visiting Hong Kong, China and Macau exceeded the same period in 2019
It is worth noting that among short-distance outbound destinations, in addition to "Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand", in Hong Kong, China, and Macau, China, the number of mainland tourists during the Spring Festival holiday this year exceeded the same period in 2019, and hotel occupancy rates also remained at a high level.
On February 18, data released by the Macau SAR Government showed that according to preliminary statistics, Macau received nearly 1.36 million inbound tourists during the Spring Festival Golden Week, and on the third day of the Lunar New Year (February 12), it set a record for the first time since single-day statistics were recorded. The second highest record; the daily average is close to 170,000, an increase of more than 1.6 times compared with last year’s Spring Festival prime Sunday, and has returned to the average level of the Spring Festival prime Sunday in 2019. At the same time, provisional data shows that the average daily passenger volume from the mainland during the Spring Festival Golden Week was 129,000, which has exceeded the average daily passenger volume from the mainland during the Spring Festival Golden Week in 2019, with a recovery rate of 101.3%; the average daily passenger volume in Hong Kong and international markets were respectively About 32,000 and 6,600 visitors recovered to 97.8% and 78.5% of the same period in 2019, reflecting the good recovery trend of Macau visitors.
According to information provided by the industry, the average occupancy rate of Macau hotel establishments during the Spring Festival Golden Week was 95.2%, an increase of nearly 10 percentage points from the Spring Festival in 2023. Among them, the occupancy rate on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year (February 13) was the highest, reaching 97.9%. The average room price of Macau’s hotel industry establishments (hotels, apartment hotels and budget accommodation establishments) during the Golden Week was approximately 1,922 patacas, an increase of 23.4% compared to last year’s Spring Festival.
The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) previously reported that many tourists posted photos on social platforms saying that Macau on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year was "full of people" and called "Don't come". During the Spring Festival, the prices of many hotels near popular tourist attractions in Macau have increased several times. Among them, rooms at the Galaxy Hotel in Macau will be booked from February 13 to February 20 and from February 24 (Lantern Festival) to February 25. All sold out.
According to news released by the Hong Kong SAR Government News Network, the overall number of tourists visiting Hong Kong during the Spring Festival Golden Week reached the same period in 2018, and the number of tourists visiting Hong Kong from the mainland exceeded the same period in 2019. Data disclosed by the Hong Kong SAR Government News Network shows that during the eight days of the Mainland’s Spring Festival Golden Week from February 10 to 17, the Immigration Department initially recorded a total of approximately 1.436 million tourists visiting Hong Kong, of which 1.255 million Mainland tourists visited Hong Kong via various sea, land and air routes. The average daily number of mainland tourists entering Hong Kong at the control point is about 157,000, which is 25.3% and 14.9% higher than last year's Labor Day holiday and National Day Golden Week respectively, and also exceeds the daily average number of tourists in the same period in 2018. The peak day for mainland tourists to enter Hong Kong is February 12, the third day of the Lunar New Year, with about 186,000 visits to Hong Kong. On average, the port of entry used by the most mainland tourists is West Kowloon on the High Speed Rail, followed by Lo Wu.
According to reports from the industry, the occupancy rate of Hong Kong hotels reached 90% in the first few days of Golden Week, and the occupancy rate during the entire Golden Week exceeded 80%. Registration information from the Tourism Industry Regulatory Authority shows that during the Mainland’s Spring Festival Golden Week, a total of about 1,980 mainland inbound tour groups arrived in Hong Kong, involving about 66,000 tourists, accounting for about 5.3% of the total.
Chinese and foreign tourists "go in both directions", with about 3.23 million inbound tourists visiting during the eight-day Spring Festival holiday
In terms of inbound tourism, China has unilaterally exempted visas for many countries before the Spring Festival, mutually exempted visas with "Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand", launched a series of inbound tourism facilitation measures, and many other favorable measures, allowing Chinese and foreign tourists to "go in both directions" during this Spring Festival.
Taking the inbound and outbound passenger flow at Shanghai ports as an example, from February 10 to February 17, the Shanghai border inspection authorities inspected a total of 797,000 inbound and outbound persons, with an average of 99,000 passengers per day. The total number of entry-exit passengers at the Pudong and Hongqiao international airports exceeded 100,000 for three consecutive days on February 15, 16, and 17, and the peak passenger flow reached new highs since 2020. During the Spring Festival, the average daily inbound foreign passengers at Shanghai Airport were nearly 6,000, about 4.6 times the number during the same period last year, with Japan, South Korea, the United States and other countries ranking among the top three.
According to statistics and analysis from the Kunming Border Inspection Station, there were nearly 29,000 inbound tourists during the Spring Festival holiday this year, with a significant proportion of overseas Chinese returning home to visit relatives and foreign tourists traveling in China. Among them, more than 3,500 foreign tourists entered the country, accounting for about 6% of the total number of inbound tourists.
According to calculations by the data center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, there were approximately 3.23 million inbound tourists during the eight-day Spring Festival holiday.
Ctrip data shows that during this year’s Spring Festival, inbound tourism increased by 48% compared with 2019.
From the perspective of tourism products, tickets to inbound tourist attractions during this Spring Festival holiday increased more than 10 times compared with 2019. The main source countries are Japan, the United States, South Korea, Australia, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Vietnam, Canada, Thailand, and Germany.
The effects of China's unilateral visa-free policy are evident. Visitors from new countries such as France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Malaysia, and Singapore that can enter China without visas have grown significantly. The total number of inbound travel orders during the Spring Festival from the above-mentioned countries has doubled compared with the same period in 2019. Shanghai, Shenzhen, Beijing, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Chongqing, Nanjing, Harbin, Xi'an and other cities are the main destinations for inbound tourism and are popular with foreign friends.
Ctrip Research Institute believes that travel is becoming a new custom. Whether traveling to other places to celebrate the New Year or traveling locally to re-understand hometowns, travel has become a necessity for ordinary people to experience a better life. Starting from the Spring Festival, inbound and outbound tourism will enter the fast lane of recovery, and the inbound and outbound tourism supply chain will also accelerate its repair.