Trip.com Group sees surge in mainland China travel bookings ahead of Lunar New Year period
Contributors are not employed, compensated or governed by TDM, opinions and statements are from the contributor directly
Trip.com Group, the leading global travel service provider, has seen mainland Chinese demand for travel continue to surge in the run-up to the Lunar New Year holiday season. This comes after the decision last month by mainland China to officially abolish all quarantine restrictions for inbound visitors from 8 January.
Since the announcement on 26 December 2022, Trip.com Group has subsequently seen a huge increase in searches and the volume of travel bookings.
Flight bookings and destination search trends
On Trip.com Group’s leading Chinese language travel service platform Ctrip, between 26 December 2022 and 5 January 2023, search interest for outbound flights from mainland China increased by 83% compared to the two-week period prior, with outbound flight bookings increasing by 59% over the same period.
Bookings show the most popular cross-border destinations include: Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Australia, Singapore, the United States, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, and Indonesia.
Lunar New Year Trends
With millions set to be on the move during the Lunar New Year holiday in China, also known as Spring Festival, which takes place from 21 – 27 January 2023 and the first major holiday following the liberalisation of border policies, outbound bookings for trips have grown significantly.
Analysis of Ctrip data shows overseas travel for the seven-day Lunar New Year holiday surged by 540% compared to last year’s Spring Festival; and the average cost of bookings was revealed to have risen by 32% year-on-year.
Ctrip data also shows airline bookings from mainland China to Hong Kong increased by 18 times compared with the previous year, following the announcement to ease restrictions. The number of airline bookings to Hong Kong has also increased by 36% month-on-month.
Similarly, the search popularity of Hong Kong on the platform was more than double that and increased by 85% month-on-month.
Taking a deeper look, the top ten most popular domestic destinations for the Spring festival are Shanghai, Beijing, Sanya, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Kunming, Hangzhou, Chongqing and Haikou.
Comments are closed.