During the 40-day Spring Festival travel period, approximately 9 billion people will travel——

Mobile China is full of vitality

【Economic Interface】

The flavor of the new year is getting stronger and the Spring Festival is approaching. No matter where you are, reunion is always a constant concern in people's hearts. At present, every tourist who is busy working outside has returned home and begins planning his own reunion trip.

How eager are people for reunion? A set of data gives the answer: According to the Ministry of Transport's prediction, during this year's 40-day Spring Festival travel rush, there will be approximately 9 billion people traveling, visiting relatives, and leisure, which is expected to hit a record high. The national highway network is expected to have an average daily traffic volume of 37.2 million vehicles, an increase of 7.5% over the same period last year; the national railways are expected to carry an average of 12 million passengers a day, an increase of 37.9% over the same period last year; the passenger volume of civil aviation is expected to exceed 80 million , an increase of 44.9% compared with last year...

Spring comes every year, and every year is different. The Spring Festival travel season is not only an important link for family reunions, but also a unique window to observe social progress and changes in the times. What are the new features of this year’s Spring Festival? What new stories do people have on their way home? Today, let us turn our perspective to the journey and explore the new changes in Spring Festival travel together.

More choices for Spring Festival travel destinations

　　"How will you celebrate the Spring Festival this year?" As the New Year approaches, when friends meet, this happy question of "how to celebrate the New Year" becomes the warmest greeting for most people.

　　As the economy enters a period of recovery and development after the epidemic prevention and control phase is over, people's travel demand is expected to be intensively released during this year's Spring Festival travel period, and the destinations for Spring Festival travel will also be more diverse.

　　This year is the fifth year that 32-year-old Wang Wenqing has been working in Shanghai. In the past few years, during the Spring Festival travel season, he would set his alarm clock in advance and grab a train ticket to his hometown of Chongqing on New Year's Eve as soon as it went on sale.

　　"This year I thought about it carefully and decided to take my family to celebrate the New Year in a different way." Wang Wenqing told reporters that every year when he returns to his hometown to celebrate the New Year, the content is the same: having a New Year's Eve dinner at home, busy visiting relatives for two days, meeting a few friends, a compact The Spring Festival holiday is over.

　　Wang Wenqing introduced that he grew up in Chongqing. After attending college, he came to Shanghai to study and work today. His travel destinations are mainly in the south. While browsing short videos recently, he was intrigued by videos of a large number of southern tourists traveling to Harbin, Heilongjiang.

　　"I have never seen so many ice sculptures and such big snowflakes. The delicious and affordable iron pot stew and pot-wrapped pork made my mouth water! At that time, I immediately made a New Year's eve meal for myself and my parents. Air ticket to Harbin." Wang Wenqing said that this year he changed jobs and got a salary increase, and all the expenses for the trip came from his pocket. "I spent my own money to take my parents out for fun. I feel confident this time!"

　　The "2024 Spring Festival Travel Trend Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") released by Tongcheng Travel shows that during the 2024 Spring Festival travel period, residents not only have strong travel demand, but also have a more dispersed choice of destinations. In addition to traditional popular destinations such as Chongqing, Beijing and Sanya, driven by the popularity of ice and snow tourism, the passenger flow of Spring Festival travel in major Northeast cities such as Harbin and Shenyang has also increased significantly compared with the same period last year. At the same time, with the rapid recovery of international flight capacity, international air ticket prices during the Spring Festival in 2024 will drop by an average of 41% year-on-year. Lower air ticket prices will also benefit outbound travel during the Spring Festival and cross-border family visits.

　　The "Report" pointed out that in the 2024 Spring Festival, domestic flights will account for 43% of family travel, and the proportion of parent-child travel will be 35%; in terms of railways, the proportion of family travel will be approximately 27%, and the proportion of parent-child travel will be approximately 20%, both of which are the highest since the same period in 2019. new highs. At the same time, the proportion of family trips to popular tourist destinations is also on the rise.

　　In this regard, Zhang Xiaodong, a professor at Beijing Jiaotong University, said that with the improvement of people's living standards and changes in travel concepts, more and more people choose to travel during the Spring Festival. In the future, the holiday effect of the Spring Festival will further drive the development of agriculture, transportation, logistics and other industries, becoming a spring wave of internal driving force for the Chinese economy.

Self-driving passenger flow will reach a record high

　　During this year's Spring Festival, in addition to the continued popularity of railways and civil aviation, self-driving travel has become a favored choice by more and more people. Data shows that 9 billion people will move during the 40 days of Spring Festival this year, a record high. What’s even more amazing is that 7.2 billion of these 9 billion trips were made by self-driving, which is also a record high.

　　Li Hongyuan, a young man from Zhengzhou, Henan, who has worked in Beijing for many years, is one of these 7.2 billion people. Precisely because he recognizes the flexibility and convenience of self-driving travel, driving home for the New Year has been his best choice in recent years.

　　"Beijing is about 700 kilometers from Zhengzhou, and it takes about 7 to 8 hours in total. If you start from Beijing in the morning, you usually don't have to delay returning home for dinner. I think it is quite convenient." Li Hongyuan told reporters that in the past few years, his two The child was born successfully. The parents basically helped to take care of the child in Beijing. A 7-seater commercial vehicle was just enough for the family to travel comfortably from their home in Beijing to their home in Zhengzhou during the Chinese New Year. Although it took longer than the high-speed rail, it still Self-driving is more flexible and comfortable.

　　In Li Hongyuan's view, whether going home for the New Year or traveling during holidays, the experience of self-driving is becoming more and more comfortable and convenient. "I used to worry about whether the road conditions were good and whether the route was familiar. Now I just need to plan the itinerary in advance, check the status of the vehicle before departure, prepare snacks and mineral water, etc., and follow the navigation to get home quickly and conveniently," he said.

　　Data show that in 2023, the number of motor vehicles in the country will reach 435 million, including 336 million cars; the number of motor vehicle drivers will reach 523 million, including 486 million car drivers. The substantial increase in car ownership and the number of drivers coupled with the increasingly improved supply of road transportation infrastructure has made self-driving an important choice for people to enjoy free travel.

　　"Relatively speaking, self-driving travel is not only more flexible in time, can go point-to-point directly to the destination, and is convenient for loading more luggage, but also has the advantages of private space and friendliness for the elderly and children." Li Hongchang, a researcher at the Sustainable Transportation Innovation Center, analyzed that, in general, , factors such as the development of highway networks, the popularity of motor vehicles and the increase in the number of drivers have greatly promoted the development of self-driving travel.

　　But while it is convenient, 7.2 billion self-driving trips are undoubtedly a huge amount of traffic for the highway network. According to forecasts from the Ministry of Transport, during this year’s Spring Festival, the average daily traffic volume on the national road network is expected to reach 37.2 million vehicles, an increase of 7.5% compared with the same period last year.

　　In this regard, Li Yang, deputy leader of the comprehensive transportation Spring Festival travel team and deputy minister of the Ministry of Transport, said that in response to the road network situation, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Public Security have proposed measures including strengthening the diversion of congested road sections, improving the traffic capacity of toll stations, optimizing The "eight measures" to ensure highway travel during major holidays, including obstacle clearance and rescue, strive to ensure safe travel for passengers.

Accelerate the realization of "people enjoy their travels and goods flow smoothly"

　　The Spring Festival travel season is known as the largest population migration in the world. Over the decades, people's mood for reunion has not changed, but the roads they walk on and the means of transportation they take have quietly undergone tremendous changes.

　　In the 1990s, the slow green train was the most common scene during Spring Festival travel. During that period, there were too many people and few cars, so it was hard to get a ticket. Some people lined up at the ticket office very early in order to buy tickets to go home.

　　"It took a long time to go home by train." Wang Jianwei, a retired employee of China Railway Beijing Bureau who has worked on the railway all his life, recalled that because some local train lines were inaccessible, many passengers had to transfer to other transportation after getting off the train. Tools, a long way to get home.

　　Nowadays, you can take the "coin-standing" challenge by the window of a high-speed train traveling at a speed of 350 kilometers per hour. You can enjoy the magnificent mountain and river scenery of the motherland through the speed-reducing glass of the high-speed train without getting dizzy. At the same time, a series of service measures that were unimaginable in the past, such as facial recognition, WiFi in the carriages, Internet ordering, and independent seat selection, have better met the travel needs of passengers in the new era.

　　"Seeing how convenient and warm the Spring Festival travel for passengers is, as an older generation of railway people, I feel really proud." Wang Jianwei said.

　　At present, my country has independently developed the Fuxing EMU with complete intellectual property rights; my country has for the first time independently developed the C919 mainline jet airliner in accordance with internationally accepted airworthiness standards and has independent intellectual property rights; and the first domestically produced large-scale cruise ship "Aida· "Modu Hao" has been put into operation during the Spring Festival. As of the end of 2023, my country's railway operating mileage will reach 159,000 kilometers, including 45,000 kilometers of high-speed rail, 177,000 kilometers of expressways, and the total length of national air routes will reach more than 230,000 kilometers. Pieces of important transportation equipment and groups of dynamically increasing mileage data have made people's Spring Festival travel more convenient and comfortable.

　　The Spring Festival travel season is a window of the times, reflecting the ever-changing development and changes. Li Hongchang said that due to the application of technology, this year's Spring Festival transportation will become more intelligent and efficient. Passengers can make full use of various smart devices to obtain timely and effective travel information. Electronic ticketing systems, vehicle positioning technology, intelligent navigation and other technological means will provide passengers with more convenient and faster travel services.

　　"At present, the beautiful vision of 'people enjoy their travels and things flow smoothly' is accelerating to become a reality. It can be said that today's Spring Festival travel has gradually turned into a pleasant and beautiful trip." Li Hongchang said that this is both the development of Chinese society and the It is a testimony of the times and a concrete manifestation of the country’s development achievements benefiting people’s livelihood.

(Guangming Daily reporter Zi Qian)