Spring Festival sees record travel surge across China

The eight-day Spring Festival holiday this year, which concludes on Tuesday, saw a record high volume of passenger traffic, and the travel volume seen during the middle of the holiday was significantly higher than last year, indicating China's booming travel and consumption markets, industry players found.

Small Chinese cities with strong festival atmospheres experienced the highest growth in hotel bookings during the holiday. For instance, Huangshan city in East China's Anhui province, with newly launched performances celebrating intangible cultural heritages, saw booking bookings more than double year-on-year, according to Qunar, a Beijing-based online travel agency.

Besides, Shantou and Chaozhou in Guangdong province, with featured folk customs presented during the festival, saw hotel booking volumes jump by 80 percent year-on-year, Qunar said.

Meanwhile, with more countries offering visa-free entry policies for Chinese visitors and lower airfare and hotel prices, more residents from smaller Chinese towns traveled abroad during the holiday.

Over the holiday period, international flight bookings from Chongqing; Ningbo, Zhejiang province; and Suzhou, Jiangsu province, rose by more than 50 percent on a yearly basis. Popular outbound travel destinations for Chinese tourists include Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore and Indonesia.

"Southeast Asian countries, with their proximity to China, visa-free entry policies, affordable prices and suitable temperatures, remain popular destinations that's hard to be replaced," said Cai Muzi, a Qunar researcher.

"While Japanese tourism continues its rapid growth of popularity, replacing Thailand as the hottest outbound destination during the Spring Festival holiday for Chinese consumers," Cai said.