Chinese tourists' outbound travel orders surge 640 pct on-yr during Spring Festival holiday
Two Chinese tourists and local dancers pose for photos at the Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali, Indonesia, Jan. 22, 2023. (Photo by Dicky Bisinglasi/Xinhua)
As China relaxed its outbound travel restrictions amid its recent COVID-19 response shift, many Chinese tourists went abroad to celebrate the Spring Festival. The orders for outbound tourism surged 640 percent year on year, according to a report released on Friday by Trip.com Group.
Data from the leading online travel agency in China showed that during the week-long holiday, the air ticket orders for cross-border trips placed by Chinese tourists on its online platform increased more than four times year on year.
The most popular destinations for Chinese tourists included Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Chiang Mai, Manila and Bali, the report said.
Correspondingly, overseas hotel bookings by tourists coming from the Chinese mainland rose over four times year on year. The reservations for hotels in Bangkok soared more than 33 times year on year, with the average daily rate of hotels increasing about 70 percent.
Judging from the burgeoning travel during the Spring Festival holiday, it is reasonable to believe that the potential of China's tourism consumption will be unleashed at an accelerated pace, and the tourism market will see considerable recovery this year, said Shen Jiani, senior researcher with the strategic research center of the research institute under Trip.com Group.
Shen predicted with the increase of international flights in the future, China's outbound travel market would become explosive by the May Day holiday.