Current:Home > NewsMillions take to China’s railways, roads, air in 1st big autumn holiday since end of zero-COVID-LoTradeCoin
Millions take to China’s railways, roads, air in 1st big autumn holiday since end of zero-COVID
View Date:2024-12-25 02:04:52
HONG KONG (AP) — Many millions of Chinese tourists are expected to travel within their country, splurging on hotels, tours, attractions and meals in a boost to the economy during the 8-day autumn holiday period that began Friday.
This year’s holiday began with the Mid-Autumn Festival on Friday and also includes the Oct. 1 National Day. The public holidays end on Oct. 6.
Typically hundreds of millions of Chinese travel at home and overseas during such holidays. The eight-day-long holiday is the longest week of public holidays since COVID-19 pandemic restrictions were lifted in December. Outbound tourism has lagged domestic travel, with flight capacities lagging behind pre-pandemic levels.
Big cities like the capital, Beijing, Shanghai, and southern cities like Shenzhen and Guangzhou are favored destinations. Smaller cities, such as Chengdu and Chongqing in southwest China also are popular.
All that travel is a boon for the world’s No. 2 economy: During the week-long May holiday this year, 274 million tourists spent 148 billion yuan ($20.3 billion).
“Over the last few years with the pandemic, there’s been really strong pent-up demand,” said Boon Sian Chai, managing director at the online travel booking platform Trip.com Group. Both domestic and outbound travel have “recovered significantly,” but travel within China accounted for nearly three-quarters of total bookings, Chai said.
China Railway said it was expecting about 190 million passenger trips during the Sept. 27-Oct. 8 travel rush, more than double the number of trips last year and an increase from 2019, before the pandemic started.
In Guangzhou and Shenzhen, extra overnight high-speed trains will operate for 11 days to cope with a travel surge during the long holiday, according to the China Railway Guangzhou Group Co., Ltd.
Another 21 million passengers are expected to travel by air during the holiday, with an average of about 17,000 flights per day, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China. More than 80% of those flights are domestic routes.
Jia Jianqiang, CEO of Liurenyou International Travel Agency, said Chinese are splurging on more luxurious travel.
“Many people are now also inclined towards more customized, high-end tours compared to the large group tours that were popular (before the pandemic),” Jia said.
For many Chinese, long public holidays such as Golden Week are the best time to travel, since paid vacation can be as few as five days a year.
“Most Chinese don’t have long holidays, so this time of the year is when everyone can take the longest break and the only time to travel for fun,” said Fu Zhengshuai, an IT engineer and photography enthusiast who often travels alone to remote areas in China such as far western Qinghai and Xinjiang.
The downside of traveling during such big holidays is that everyone else is out there, too, and prices of tickets to attractions, food, and accommodations are high, Fu said.
For student Ma Yongle, traveling during Golden Week means long waiting times, huge crowds, and heavy traffic. Train tickets often are sold out.
She has since adopted what is referred in China as a “special forces travel trend” where tourists don’t stay overnight at a destination, but only take day trips to save money.
A growing but still relatively small number of Chinese are venturing abroad. According to Trip.com data, outbound travel orders this year are nearly 20 times those during last year’s autumn holidays, when many pandemic restrictions were still in place. Thailand, Singapore, South Korea and Malaysia are popular destinations, as are more distant places such as Australia and the United Kingdom.
Overseas travel is bound to bounce back, Chai said.
“If you look at flight capacity, it has only recovered to about half of pre-pandemic levels,” he said. “As flight capacity starts to pick up toward the end of this year and next year, outbound travel will continue to increase.”
___
Associated Press video producers Olivia Zhang and Wayne Zhang in Beijing contributed to this report.
veryGood! (2)
Related
- FBI raids New York City apartment of Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan, reports say
- Maker of the spicy 'One Chip Challenge' pulls product from store shelves
- Residents and fishermen file a lawsuit demanding a halt to the release of Fukushima wastewater
- Nicki Minaj paints hip-hop pink — and changes the game
- Giuliani’s lawyers after $148M defamation judgment seek to withdraw from his case
- Illinois child, 9, struck and killed by freight train while riding bike to school
- Rail operator fined 6.7 million pounds in Scottish train crash that killed 3
- After reckoning over Smithsonian's 'racial brain collection,' woman's brain returned
- Cavaliers' Darius Garland rediscovers joy for basketball under new coach
- AP Week in Pictures: Latin America and Caribbean
Ranking
- Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan says next year will be his last in office; mum on his plans afterward
- Body cam shows prolific federal drug prosecutor offering cops business card in DUI crash arrest
- Removal of Rio Grande floating barriers paused by appeals court
- Country Singer Zach Bryan Apologizes After Being Arrested in Oklahoma
- Amazon launches an online discount storefront to better compete with Shein and Temu
- Why is the current housing market so expensive? Blame the boomers, one economist says.
- Hunt for Daniel Abed Khalife, terror suspect who escaped a London prison, enters second day
- Panama to increase deportations in face of record migration through the Darien Gap
Recommendation
-
Kyle Richards Swears This Holiday Candle Is the Best Scent Ever and She Uses It All Year
-
Australia and the Philippines strengthen their ties as South China Sea disputes heat up
-
Judge orders Louisiana to remove incarcerated youths from the state’s maximum-security adult prison
-
Update your iPhone: Apple just pushed out a significant security update
-
Maine elections chief who drew Trump’s ire narrates House tabulations in livestream
-
Poet Rita Dove to receive an honorary National Book Award medal for lifetime achievement
-
Influencer sentenced to 5 years for COVID relief fraud scheme used to fund her lavish lifestyle
-
Baltimore school police officer indicted on overtime fraud charges