CHINA. ForwardKeys has released data for air tickets issued up to 5 March for Chinese domestic travel that shows a rise in rural and ‘red’ tourism, notably around the period of the country’s Labour Day (1 May) celebrations. The figures reveal that staycations continue to increase in popularity in China while international travel remains heavily restricted due to the pandemic.
The category of ‘red’ tourism is currently prominent, as China’s Communist Party gets set to celebrate its 100th birthday, the travel data analyst observed. This, it said, can be seen through the popularity of the city of Zunyi in Guizhou province, which ForwardKeys describes as a ‘national patriotic’ location. Zunyi is a famous Chinese Communist Party historical site as it was here in 1935 that the leadership of the new Central Committee led by Mao ZedongMao Zedong was established, a pivotal event widely credited with saving both the party and the Red Army.
According to the ForwardKeys data, the current popularity of Zunyi is underlined by its entrance into the top 15 Chinese destinations by forward air ticket booking volumes, with growth of +500% in advanced bookings for the dates 30 April-6 May compared to the corresponding period in 2019.
ForwardKeys China Market Expert Nancy Dai said: “Analysing the major destinations, we can see that Sanya [in Hainan] and Chengdu continue to grow in their popularity, as forward bookings are double that of the same period in 2019.” [Asked by The Moodie Davitt Report about bookings for Haikou Meilan International Airport, Hainan’s other main gateway, the company said that bookings are +157.4% ahead for the Labour Day holidays from 30 April to 6 May -Ed].
Bookings to Harbin and Changchun are also much advanced. These two North China destinations suffered during Chinese New Year due to a new break out of COVID-19 cases, and that pent-up demand is set to be released greatly during the Labour Day holiday, ForwardKeys noted.
This year the Labour Day holiday has been allocated an extra day, making it a five-day celebration (1-5 May). “We can see through our data that there is considerable travel demand during the Labour Day holiday, with domestic bookings ahead by +32%,” said Dai.
Meanwhile, Mengfan Wang, Senior Researcher at Dragon Trail Interactive, has recently created a consumer survey covering Chinese travel themes. She will disclose the full findings in a joint webinar with ForwardKeys on March 16 (you can book for the free event, “What’s next for China?” here).
Offering a preview of the results, Wang said: “Optimism for travel is growing, though many remain on the cautious side. Based on the sentiments shared in the survey, we expect Chinese travellers to travel to low-risk areas, less crowded areas, and places with strict policies and efficiency in pandemic control. Tourism marketers should consider how to improve perceptions of safety, efficiency, and readiness for travellers in the future.”
The survey asked respondents to rank geographical areas by travel preference, as well as to assess the safety of 12 different countries. “As in past surveys, Europe still ranks second as the global region where Chinese want to travel, behind Asia. For destination safety, Japan and Singapore ranked the highest,” said Wang.
She added: “Given the speed of recovery in China, travellers will start paying more attention to friendliness to Chinese travellers. Some 62% of survey respondents said that friendliness to Chinese travellers would make them willing to travel overseas, making this a more influential factor than a lifting of quarantine rules (56%) or being fully vaccinated (43%).”
