Dragon Boat Festival fuels tourism spike

[Photo: Xinhua]

Hotel bookings for the upcoming Dragon Boat Festival holiday have surged ahead of the long weekend, with travelers taking advantage of lower airfares and strong interest in traditional cultural activities, online travel platform Qunar said yesterday.

Bookings for hotel stays on yesterday were more than 40% higher than the previous day, according to Qunar data.

The three-day holiday – which starts today without additional make-up workdays – has boosted demand for short-distance trips around major cities, with many train tickets on popular routes from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen in Guangdong province already sold out.

Traditional folk culture remains a major draw for travelers. Searches related to Dragon Boat Festival themes – including dragon boat races and sticky rice dumplings, also known as zongzi – more than tripled from a month earlier, Qunar said.

The platform said destinations hosting dragon boat events and cultural activities have seen strong spikes in booking, particularly in southern provinces such as Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi.

The holiday, which falls between the May Day break and the peak summer travel season, is also emerging as one of the cheapest travel periods of the year.

According to Qunar, the average airfare for departures on Saturday is the lowest of any day in the next two months, with domestic ticket prices about 40% below levels typically seen in July and August.

Inbound tourism is also gaining momentum as foreign visitors arrive to experience Dragon Boat Festival traditions. Guangzhou, which will host the Guangzhou International Dragon Boat Invitational Tournament on Saturday, featuring 105 teams from 20 countries and regions, has seen inbound flight bookings rise 50%  from a year earlier, Qunar said.

Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Chengdu in Sichuan province, and Shenzhen ranked among the most popular destinations for inbound travelers during the holiday period, with visitors from countries including Canada, Britain, Vietnam, South Korea, the United States, and Australia driving demand.

Rail network expects 83m passenger trips

China’s railway network is expected to handle 83 million passenger trips during the five-day Dragon Boat Festival travel rush, which began yesterday and will run through Monday, according to China State Railway Group, the national railway operator.

The peak is expected today, when around 19 million passenger trips are forecast, the company said.

Holiday travel demand is being driven mainly by family visits and tourism, with medium- and short-distance trips accounting for a large share, the company said.

To meet rising demand, railway authorities plan to operate about 13,000 passenger trains per day on average, using additional services, coupled with high-speed trains and extra carriages on conventional trains.

Night high-speed trains will be added on major corridors, including Beijing-Shanghai, Beijing-Guangzhou, and Beijing-Harbin, during peak periods. ChinaDaily