During Chinese National Day holiday, a.k.a. Golden Week in China, cultural and tourism consumption is more popular this year than in previous years. According to the data from Alibaba’s OTA Fliggy, the number of people who have booked domestic tours on National Day Fliggy increased by 42% year-on-year, and the growth rate exceeded the outbound travel.
China’s National Day holidays are public holidays and last one week from 1 Oct to 7 Oct.
With the National Day holiday approaching, the searching volume of OTA Tuniu’s National Day holiday travel products is soaring while the sales of the outbound and domestic tour products are rocketing, accounting for 57% and 31% of total bookings respectively.
Some travelers have made reservations for outbound tours four months in advance.
Compared with the period before the holiday, the prices of tour products during the National Day holiday have all increased.
Among them, domestic tour products rise by an average of about 35% and quick getaway tour products rose by 10%-15%; the prices of outbound short-distance tour products generally increase by about 30% while the price increase for outbound long-distance tour products is slightly lower than that of short-term tour products, at about 10%.
Different from previous years, the trend of off-peak travel around the National Day holidays this year is not obvious. One reason is that the previous holiday “Mid-Autumn Festival” is 12 days apart, making it difficult to utilize by the travelers were used to taking advantage.
In 2018, there were only 6 working days between the 2018 Mid-Autumn Festival holiday and the National Day holiday, which can adjust and piece together the longest holiday in the history of “Mid-Autumn Festival + National Day” – 16 days. However, the 12 working days between the two festivals this year made people give up adjustment or switch to adjust the latter part of the holiday.
On the other hand, with the increasing awareness of traveling in off-peak periods, the line between high seasons and off-seasons is blurring. It is expected that the number of people traveling during the National Day holiday will increase sharply from about September 30 and reach the peak on October 1.
Tuniu’s data for tourism products reservation during the National Day holiday shows that long-distance and in-depth tour products are the most popular ones. Over 40% of users will travel for 5-6 days while nearly 20% have selected itineraries of 7 days or longer.
Diverse travel modes such as group tour, free & easy tours, partially guided tour, customized tour, self-driving tour, local fun tour, car rental, and others will be favored by a large number of tourists during the National Day holiday.
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