Are there any new trends during New Year’s Day?

On January 2, various travel platforms released a travel report for the 2023 New Year's Day holiday. The report data showed that air tickets and hotels achieved "both volume and price increases" compared with the 2020 New Year's Day holiday. After getting rid of the impact of the epidemic, hotel bookings in some popular destinations such as Luoyang, Harbin and Xishuangbanna increased more than 10 times year-on-year.

A report released by Ctrip that day showed that compared with less than 40% of users traveling across provinces in 2022, nearly 60% of users chose to travel across provinces during the New Year's Day holiday this time. According to data from Ctrip’s FlightAI market insight platform, during New Year’s Day, major airports basically returned to the same period last year, and the passenger volume of the top 10 airports increased by about 20% year-on-year.

Tongcheng Research Institute analyzed that the rapid recovery of the New Year's Day market is due to the gradual recovery of people's travel confidence and the increase in demand for long-distance travel. On the other hand, the Spring Festival holiday is earlier this year and the Spring Festival passenger flow has increased The peak is ahead of schedule and travel demand is superimposed.

Which cities are becoming popular destinations?

Ctrip platform data shows that Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Chongqing, Nanjing, Xi'an and Wuhan are the top 10 cities with the highest popularity for New Year's Day travel. And "healing travel" has become the favorite of "Yangkang" - reflected in the destinations, the southern and island cities with a mild climate and abundant sunshine are more popular than in previous years. Cities near and south of the Tropic of Cancer such as Sanya, Zhuhai, Xishuangbanna, Dali, Xiamen, Haikou, Tengchong, and Beihai have soared in popularity. Ctrip air ticket bookings for these destinations have increased by more than 10%. Among them, air ticket bookings to Xishuangbanna have increased by 71% year-on-year. %, the largest increase. On New Year's Eve, Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Changsha, Shenzhen, and Xi'an were the top 10 most popular cities for tourism, and night tour orders were also at the forefront.

Tongcheng Travel revealed that in terms of long-term travel, among flights departing from Shanghai and Hangzhou, Kunming is the destination with the highest order volume. Guangzhou and Shenzhen have more tourists flying to Chengdu and Chongqing. In the list of popular train ticket lines, the passenger flow of trains from the Guangzhou-Shenzhen and Yangtze River Delta regions to the western and central provinces has increased significantly, reflecting the direction of passenger flow returning home before the Spring Festival.

Mafengwo big data shows that during the 2023 New Year's Day holiday, the popularity of "long-distance travel" increased by 48% month-on-month. Among them, the popularity of "medium- and long-distance travel" for 4-8 days increased by 172% month-on-month, and 41% of tourists Choose to travel by car. Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Guangzhou and Shenzhen are among the top five tourist source cities with the highest enthusiasm for traveling. Niche destinations with less crowds and beautiful scenery have become the "first stop" for many young people during the New Year's travels, including Wanning in Hainan, Tengchong in Yunnan, Yanji in Jilin, Mohe in Heilongjiang, Shangri-La in Yunnan, Xuexiang in Heilongjiang, Lingshui in Hainan, Shunde in Guangdong, and Yunnan Mangshi and Xichang, Sichuan are among the top ten popular niche destinations during the New Year's Day holiday.

Lvmama Travel Network and Qichuang Travel Group released the "2023 New Year's Day Travel Summary Report", which pointed out that during the New Year's Day holiday, Shanghai Disneyland in the Yangtze River Delta region and Beijing Universal Studios Theme Park in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Zhuhai "Sweet" theme parks such as Guangdong Chimelong Resort in the Triangle area are seeing strong orders, and New Year's limited performances and fireworks are very attractive.

Air tickets and hotels have achieved "volume and price increases"

The price can also be used as evidence - according to Ctrip platform data, the average price of Xishuangbanna hotels on New Year's Day is 804 yuan, with the highest price increase, reaching 1.7 times; Dali followed with an increase of 36%, with an average price of 601 yuan; Sanya, which has been hit by a recent fire, has also become one of the cities with the most short supply of accommodation, with prices increasing by nearly 30%, and the average hotel price is the highest, reaching 1,553 yuan.

Tongcheng Travel data shows that during this year’s New Year’s Day holiday, hotel bookings increased by 32% compared with the same period in 2020. Hotel bookings in Luoyang, Xishuangbanna, and Harbin increased by more than 10 times year-on-year, and hotel bookings in Xi’an and Ningbo increased by more than 10 times year-on-year. The year-on-year growth in volume also reached 862% and 451% respectively. In addition, Sanya, Kunming and Harbin, popular winter destinations for long-distance travel, have all entered the top ten list of popular destinations.

While New Year’s Day travel increases hotel prices, transportation costs also increase rapidly.

According to Ctrip platform data, the average price of one-way domestic air tickets including tax during New Year’s Day reached 901 yuan, a year-on-year increase of about 35%. Transportation costs in popular cities are even higher. During New Year's Day, the average price of one-way air tickets to and from Sanya, including tax, reached 1,364 yuan. The price is second only to long-term destinations such as Tibet and Xinjiang, with a year-on-year increase of nearly 50%; Harbin, Yanji, Baishan, Zhangjiakou, Altay Air tickets to ice and snow destinations such as Kanas and Kanas have also shown a trend of “volume and price increases”.

Tongcheng Travel’s big data shows that on New Year’s Day this year, domestic air ticket orders increased by 2% compared with the New Year’s Day holiday in 2020 before the epidemic, and the average air ticket price rose from 676 yuan in the same period in 2020 to 905 yuan.

Xie Xiaoqing, a senior researcher at Ctrip Research Institute, said that overall, the recovery speed of domestic flight supply has not caught up with the growth of user trips, which is one of the reasons for the large increase in ticket prices during short and long holidays. With the increase in flight capacity in the later period and the certain decrease in fuel costs after January 5, users’ travel costs will be alleviated to a certain extent. For hotels, many factors have contributed to the price growth - the rapid increase in short-term demand, the price increase in peak seasons of migratory bird destinations, and the impact of the epidemic on the supply chain and service system.

In fact, in addition to the increase in transportation and accommodation during the short holiday, the ticket prices for scenic spots on New Year’s Day have been relatively reduced.

According to Ctrip platform data, the average cost of tickets in popular cities has dropped by about 10%, and in some cities the drop has been as much as half. The reason is that many cities have launched free-ticket policies to welcome tourists: Hangzhou announced that starting from January 1, state-owned and some non-state-owned A-level scenic spots will implement free first-line tickets until the end of March; Zhangjiajie will open on New Year’s Day and Spring Festival Tickets are free, hotel and transportation discounts are introduced, and some scenic spots in Henan are free or half-price... adding fuel to the recovery of tourism.

During the holidays, which are crowded with tourists, the post-90s and post-00s generation have taken up the banner of consumption recovery. Ctrip platform data shows that the proportion of travel for those born after 90 and 00 increased by 36% year-on-year, the proportion of parent-child travel increased by 41%, and the proportion of travel by seniors decreased by 53%. The consumption potential of those born after 1990s and 2000s cannot be underestimated. Among high-star hotel orders, the average order price of this group has the highest year-on-year growth rate, reaching 37%.

Cross-border travel is the hottest in three years

With the imminent implementation of quarantine-free measures for entry on January 8, and the continuous restoration and adjustment of international flight capacity since last year, outbound travel on New Year’s Day has also become more popular. Become one of the choices for travel enthusiasts.

Ctrip data shows that cross-border air ticket bookings during New Year’s Day increased by 145% year-on-year, while cross-border travel during Spring Festival became even more popular, with bookings increasing by more than 260% year-on-year.

According to data from Ctrip’s FlightAI platform, cross-border travel passenger volume during the New Year’s Day period increased by about 70% year-on-year, making it the best short holiday for cross-border travel recovery since the epidemic. In addition, air ticket prices have also continued to fall. The average price of one-way tax-included air tickets for cross-border travel on New Year's Day is 2,820 yuan, a year-on-year decrease of about 20%.

Which overseas destinations are the most popular? Ctrip platform data shows that from New Year’s Day to the eve of the Spring Festival, Chinese Taipei, Chinese Macau, Seoul, Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Tokyo, London, Los Angeles, and Sydney are the top 10 popular cross-border destinations.

Zou Qingling, CEO of Lvmama Travel Network, said: "Data from the Lvmama platform shows that after the restoration of Macau electronic visas, traveling to Macau, China for the New Year's Eve has also been included in some tourists' itineraries. With the gradual liberalization of outbound travel , the search volume for overseas destinations has begun to increase, and it is believed that overseas destinations will soon join tourists’ long-distance travel choices.

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