Spring boosts travel demand during Qingming holiday

The bright spring days have fueled travel enthusiasm during this year's Qingming Festival holiday, as the long weekend coincides with warmer temperatures, prompting strong travel demand from Chinese consumers eager to embrace the season.

During the three-day Tomb-sweeping Day holiday, besides millions of Chinese people participating in ancient rituals and cleaning tombs to pay tribute to their family ancestors, the festival has also seen urbanites setting out for activities like kite flying and family outings.

The trend of flower blossom viewing continues to rise, boosting local cultural and tourism markets. In Luoyang, Henan, the Peony Cultural Festival, which began on April 1, coincides with the Qingming Festival, drawing travelers as peonies bloom.

In particular, the trend of enjoying flower blossoms continues to heat up, driving the growth of local cultural and tourism markets. 

For hotel bookings, Luoyang ranks among the top 10 most popular destinations in China. Cities like Kunming, Yunnan province; Bijie, Guizhou province and Wuyuan, Jiangxi province, have also seen hotel booking volumes increase by 30 percent year-on-year due to the appeal of floral sceneries, according to Qunar, a Beijing-based online travel agency.

Besides, major cities such as Beijing; Shanghai; Guangzhou, Guangdong province; and Chengdu, Sichuan province, have seen increased passenger flow within the two-hour high-speed rail network.

"The hotel booking data shows that Chinese consumers' demand for travel is still strong, and even short holidays have a significant impact on driving the growth of tourism and cultural consumption," said Xiao Peng, a Qunar researcher.

"From watching flower blossoms outside the high-speed train windows to viewing cherry blossoms abroad, the improvement of transportation has enabled travelers to make more diverse choices for the holiday," Xiao said.

Unlike the Spring Festival and May Day holidays, April is typically an off-season for travel, making airfare and hotel prices more affordable. This has encouraged many Chinese tourists to visit neighboring countries such as Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia, with hotel bookings in Osaka and Tokyo rising by 78 percent and 44 percent, respectively for the Qingming Festival, according to Trip.com Group, China's largest online travel agency.

Urbanites are also flocking to the mountains and rural areas for a taste of spring. In Jinzhai county, Anhui province, a farm hotel on Trip.com offered activities like digging spring bamboo shoots, picking fresh vegetables and learning how to make Qingtuan, or glutinous rice balls on site.

The hotel said its booking volume during the holiday has tripled over weekdays, and many families have come to the village to experience wild vegetable picking with their children.

Meanwhile, to meet the growing travel demand, domestic carriers have launched new flights and added more frequencies for some popular routes, marking the start of the summer and fall flying season on March 30. The season will run until Oct 25, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

As temperatures in North China warm up, coastal cities such as Dalian, Liaoning province and Yantai, Shandong province are gradually entering a peak tourist season. For instance, Tianjin Airlines has launched new flights connecting Dalian and Yantai.

State-owned China Southern Airlines plans to add more frequencies on its routes to connect Beijing Daxing International Airport with Altay, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, and Beijing Daxing with Jieyang, Guangdong province.

In addition, the carrier will launch more international flights to connect cities involved in the Belt and Road Initiative. Those include flights that connect Beijing Daxing with Urumqi, Xinjiang and Riyadh, capital of Saudi Arabia, as well as Beijing Daxing with Xi'an, Shaanxi province and Doha, Qatar.