China's Latest Holiday Points to Summer Strength in Outbound Travel
Photo Credit: Back side of Young Asian traveling women. The global travel industry will need to prepare for a new kind of Chinese traveler. Adobe / THANANIT
Skift Take
The Chinese are traveling, perhaps not as much as destinations would have liked them to, but the resurgence of Chinese travel brings optimism for travel businesses worldwide. It's a positive indication of recovery and a step towards normalcy in the tourism industry.
China’s three-day Dragon Boat Festival holiday that concluded Saturday showed a noticeable revival in outbound travel, as evidenced by the increasing number of border crossings.
Even though the Dragon Boat Festival is a brief national holiday in the Chinese mainland, cross-border crossings touched 65 percent of the 2019 level, according to the National Immigration Administration.
Trip.com-owned platform Ctrip noted that the average cost for outbound travel was down during the Dragon Boat holiday even as bookings have surged. A one-way air ticket was 6 percent lower than during the May Day holiday and bookings were 12 times levels a year ago.
Flight orders were up four times over the three-day New Year's Day holidays, according to Alibaba’s travel division Fliggy, indicating a significant uptick in travel demand.
Ctrip noted that Hong Kong, Bangkok, Macau, Tokyo and Singapore were the most popular destinations, with travelers spending an average of $415 per hotel booking.
Hong Kong
