Higher-quality experience top priority for travelers

This year's eight-day National Day holiday, extended a day longer than usual due to overlapping with Mid-Autumn Festival, has witnessed a record high surge in tourism, with Chinese travelers increasingly seeking high-quality travel experiences, multiple online travel agencies revealed.

The peak period for holiday travel spans from Sept 27 to Oct 12, with overseas accommodation bookings surging during the post-holiday period. Between Oct 9 and Oct 11, hotel booking volumes at popular international destinations nearly doubled, said Qunar, a Beijing-based online travel agency.

In addition, reservations for overseas bed-and-breakfast (B&B) stays owned by Chinese landlords almost tripled on a yearly basis. Many Chinese travelers prefer to book such homestays when going abroad, as they offer barrier-free language communication and enhanced safety guarantees, a key concern for outbound tourists, Qunar found.

"Homestays for this year's National Day Holiday were fully booked by the end of August. I usually help travelers with transportation transfers and recommend authentic local restaurants to them," said Meizi, a Chinese host who has run a B&B in Tokyo for over a decade.

Besides some traditional popular destinations like Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia, in-depth tours to Europe have been increasingly sought after by outbound travelers.

Booking volumes of tours to Iceland and Norway doubled year-on-year, and the booking volumes of tours to Spain, Italy and Germany jumped some 70 percent over last year, said Trip.com Group, China's largest online travel agency.

In addition, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, New Zealand, Kazakhstan and the United Arab Emirates are among countries that have recorded the fastest growth in hotel booking volumes, said Tongcheng Travel, a Suzhou, Jiangsu province-based online travel agency.

For domestic travel, demand for long-haul trips among travelers has grown significantly, driven by the overlap of passenger flows between those returning to their hometowns to visit relatives and those taking leisure trips.

During the extended break, booking volumes for flights with a travel distance exceeding 3,200 kilometers among Chinese travelers rose 14 percent year-on-year — recording the fastest growth rate across all flight distance categories. Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region emerged as the most popular departure point and destination for long-haul domestic travel.

Among air travelers, nearly 40 percent were students, followed by family travelers, who accounted for nearly 30 percent. Notably, among first-time flyers, the number of passengers booking first class and business class tickets jumped more than 10 percent, indicating a growing emphasis on flight comfort and travel experience among air passengers, said Tongcheng.

Meanwhile, inbound travel remained popular during the long holiday. Specifically, the number of domestic flight bookings made by passengers holding foreign passports surged 33 percent year-on-year, with their destinations covering nearly 100 cities across the country, Qunar said.

"Foreign travelers have extended their visits to smaller Chinese cities, including Hami, Xinjiang; Xuzhou, Jiangsu; and Qinhuangdao, Hebei province. For source countries, tourists from South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore showed the strongest preference for traveling to China," said Cai Muzi, a Qunar researcher.

Still, the most sought-after domestic destinations by international visitors are major cities such as Shanghai; Beijing; Guangdong province's Guangzhou and Shenzhen; and Chengdu, Sichuan province.

In particular, Mongolian tourists recorded the fastest growth in domestic flight bookings, with a year-on-year surge of over 900 percent. This was followed by tourists from the Netherlands, whose flight bookings rose by more than 700 percent year-on-year. Additionally, the year-on-year growth rates of flight bookings for tourists from Nigeria, Afghanistan and Georgia all exceeded 300 percent, Qunar found.

An increasing number of international visitors have shown interest in experiencing traditional Chinese culture by celebrating Mid-Autumn Festival. Many foreign tourists took part in hands-on activities such as making mooncakes, wearing hanfu (the traditional clothing of the Han ethnic group), and gazing at the full moon, Trip.com found.

zhuwenqian@chinadaily.com.cn