Qingming Festival Holiday Boosts Cultural Tourism Market
By Cao Chen
The Qingming Festival holiday has concluded, and the cultural tourism market in China is experiencing a significant boom. According to data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, there were a total of 119 million domestic tourism trips taken during the three-day holiday, marking an 11.5% increase compared to the same period in 2019. Domestic tourists spent a total of 53.95 billion yuan on travel, which is a 12.7% increase from 2019. This translates to a per capita consumption exceeding 450 yuan.
Various online travel platforms have reported a surge in travel bookings during the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday. Ctrip data shows a substantial increase in domestic local and peripheral travel orders, as well as a rise in rural tourism and micro-tourism bookings. Fliggy platform witnessed a notable increase in hotel, tour, and attraction ticket bookings during the holiday.
Wu Fenglin, director of the Planning and Leisure Research Institute of the China Tourism Academy, commented on the flourishing tourism industry during the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday, deeming it a natural release of consumer demand. He emphasized that the cultural tourism industry in China is entering a new stage of development.
Small town tourism has particularly gained popularity during the recent holiday. Advance bookings of air tickets to destinations in “small airport” cities saw a more than 70% increase year-on-year. Additionally, Tianshui B&B bookings surged 18.8 times year-on-year, with other cities like Datong, Zibo, and Jinzhou also experiencing growth in tourism traffic.
The trend of cultural tourism labels such as “Mala Tang”, “Wang Po Matchmaking”, and “Hairpin Flower Tour” has led to explosive growth in passenger traffic in cities like Tianshui, Kaifeng, and Quanzhou. Qunar Big Data Research Institute researcher Xiao Peng highlighted the importance of providing honest and quality services to attract and retain tourists.
During the Qingming Festival, flower viewing and outings have become popular activities for travelers. Domestic museum tourism has also seen increased interest, with searches for museums rising by 108% month-on-month. Cross-border tourism experienced significant growth as well, with outbound travel bookings nearly doubling year-on-year.
The overall positive trend in the cultural tourism market during the Qingming Festival holiday signals a promising path for the industry’s high-quality development in China.
(Editor: Wen Jing)