Will the tourism industry recover during the Qingming Festival and May Day holidays?

During the Qingming Festival and May Day holiday in 2021, many friends have started a new journey mode, and everyone hopes to continue playing outdoors. After all, taking advantage of the bright spring sunshine, they can feel the most magical and charming elements of nature. Here are some specific strategies to share with you.

The spring is bright and everything is recovering. It is a good time for an outing. In a few days, the Qingming Festival will be coming, and many people have already planned their travel itinerary in advance. Many people are eyeing the recent May Day holiday. Food, accommodation, transportation and travel have been arranged, and everything is ready, just waiting for the holiday.

According to data from multiple online travel companies, bookings for travel tickets, resort hotels, car rentals, self-driving cars, attraction tickets, inter-provincial group tours and other travel products during the Qingming Festival and May Day holidays are in good condition. In some places, train tickets, B&Bs, etc. Even bookings are tight, and the tourism market has picked up significantly. It is expected that tourism peaks will occur in various places during the holidays.

There are high hopes for market recovery.

"There are three days of Qingming holiday, and I took two more days of annual leave. I booked a trip to Kaifeng, Henan." Lynn, who lives in Chaoyang District, Beijing, is a girl who likes to travel. "I haven't left Beijing for a long time. After playing, I want to go everywhere now. I took annual leave before I even had time to think about my destination. "Lynne said that many of his friends are planning to travel, and they have been communicating with each other and "planting ideas" for each other. In everyone’s opinion, travel is the proper way to open spring.

As the epidemic prevention and control situation improves, many "postponed" travel plans need to be released during the Qingming Festival and May Day holidays. Starting from 0:00 on March 16, people in low-risk areas can travel freely across the country with the "green code" health code. There is no news of negative nucleic acid tests, which directly stimulates people who are eager to travel. Data shows that as of March 18, the number of people booking tickets for Qingming Festival scenic spots through Ctrip has increased by 30% compared with the same period last year. Fang Zeqian, an industry analyst at Ctrip.com, estimated that the number of tourists during the Qingming Festival holiday is expected to reach 100 million.

The government stipulates a five-day holiday from May 1st to May 5th, allowing many people to make early arrangements for travel plans during the May Day holiday. Ctrip’s search volume for national air tickets during the May Day holiday increased by approximately 40% compared with the same period last year. The Qunar.com platform shows that the number of ticket bookings during the May Day holiday has exceeded the same period last year. Ma's data also shows that search popularity for May Day travel increased by 130% month-on-month.

The huge market demand, timely favorable policies, sufficient holiday time, and the superposition of multiple factors have made the tourism market highly anticipated in this spring day. Hou is the founder of "Back Hospital" BB. He sensed the popularity of the market from BB’s bookings during the Qingming Festival and May Day holidays. "Our rooms were fully booked a month ago during the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday, and the room booking volume for the May Day holiday has now reached 80%. Everyone's confidence in the tourism market is gradually recovering." Member-based boutique hotel booking platform "Live Well in the Future" Founder Gai Shuhua said that the hotel booking rate on the platform reached 99% during the Qingming Festival holiday and 90% during the May Day holiday.

The "flower viewing tour" product has become more popular

As the weather gets warmer, the redbuds in many parks and streets in Liuzhou, Guangxi are gradually blooming, attracting tourists to record the bright spring days with their cameras. From March to May every year, our country welcomes the flowering season from south to north. Flower viewing has become a major theme to activate spring tourism consumption.

After the Spring Festival, the tourism market has welcomed a group of tourists who try their best to enjoy the spring flowers. During the upcoming Tomb Sweeping Day and May Day holidays, the popularity of the "flower viewing tour" product has once again increased, with bookings increasing significantly. Gardens of flowers, zoos and botanical gardens rank among the most popular attractions on several online travel platforms. Wuhan, Wuyuan, Kunming, Nanjing, Luoyang, Guangzhou, Suzhou, Chengdu, Linzhi and other places have become popular flower viewing destinations.

Since the Spring Festival holiday, local tourism and surrounding tourism are still a hot trend. Data from Ctrip shows that during this year’s Tomb Sweeping Day holiday, more than 50% of tourists signed up for peripheral tours and short-distance outings. The demand for local and peripheral tours, mainly flower viewing and outings, continues to lead the trend of “hotel vacations” during the holiday. In addition, during the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday, the proportion of domestic out-of-town hotel orders increased significantly, which means that consumers’ willingness to travel across provinces is also increasing, and inter-provincial travel is expected to usher in a small peak.

As for travel modes, the data provided by my mother shows that self-driving and taking high-speed rail are the mainstream modes of travel during the Qingming Festival. As of March 18, the platform’s bookings for products related to Qingming self-driving tours have increased significantly compared with the March weekend. In terms of high-speed rail travel, group tours and hotel-related products related to scenic spots along the Hangzhou-Huangzhou High-speed Railway, Beijing-Shanghai High-speed Railway, Hefu-Fuzhou High-speed Railway, Guiyang-Guangzhou High-speed Railway, etc. have the most bookings.

It is reported that in order to facilitate tourists to enjoy flowers by taking high-speed rail, many places have taken measures such as increasing the number of high-speed trains and heavy-duty trains in popular tourist directions to meet the travel needs of tourists to the greatest extent. As announced by China Railway Kunming Bureau Group Co., Ltd., the Kunming (Ming)-Chu (Xiong)-Dali (Jiang) Railway operates 27 pairs of EMUs every day; the Kunming (Ming)-Yuxi (Hekou) Railway operates 13 pairs of EMUs every day. According to changes in passenger flow, the next step will be to add more carriages, expand the grouping, and add tourist trains from Kunming to Xuanwei and Dali.

Don’t forget to prevent and control the epidemic when traveling.

The improvement in the epidemic prevention and control situation has enhanced people’s confidence in traveling. However, travel must still be tightened to prevent the spread of the epidemic.

Feng Zijian, deputy director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said that during the Qingming Festival and May Day holidays, you must wear a mask when traveling and pay attention to personal hygiene. If you have symptoms of infectious diseases such as fever, respiratory symptoms, diarrhea, etc., it is best not to travel, especially to crowded places, and seek medical treatment in time. When traveling, try to keep a distance of more than one meter between people. The management departments and service departments of each tourist attraction must control the number and density of tourists.

Before the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday, the Department of Resource Development of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued the "Notice of the General Office of the State Council on Arrangements for Certain Holidays in 2021", requiring all localities to guide tourist attractions to maintain normalcy in accordance with the provisions of the new version of the "Guidelines" Prevention and control, scientific prevention and control, precise prevention and control. If the risk level and emergency response level of local epidemic prevention and control of COVID-19 are adjusted, the prevention and control strategies and measures of tourist attractions must also be scientifically and dynamically adjusted according to the requirements of the local party committee and government. The upper limit of tourist reception in scenic spots is determined by the party committees and governments of each province (autonomous region, municipality) according to the local epidemic situation, and "one size fits all" is not allowed.

In response, many places have adjusted the reception of tourists in tourist attractions. Tianjin announced that under the premise of normalized prevention and control measures, tourist attractions, parks, etc. will resume normal opening, and the flow of people will not be uniformly restricted. Many scenic spots in Jiangsu Province have assigned dedicated personnel to actively promote and guide the public, such as normalizing epidemic prevention and control, booking travel, etc. At the same time, the scenic area is equipped with personnel to increase inspection efforts.