China Travel

Lunar New Year sparks encouraging surge in Mainland China travel bookings

New data from travel services group Trip.com underlines how the Mainland China travel market is set for a surge over the Lunar New Year period and highlights the most popular overseas destinations. By Dermot Davitt.

The latest data from Trip.com Group, the global travel service provider which comprises Trip.com, Ctrip, Skyscanner, and Qunar, underlines the strength of China travel bookings for the Lunar New Year period.

This comes after the government decision last month to abolish all quarantine restrictions for inbound visitors from 8 January.

Since the announcement on 26 December 2022, Trip.com Group said it has seen a “huge increase in searches and the volume of travel bookings”. The holiday season, otherwise known as Spring Festival, runs from 21-27 January.

On Trip.com Group’s leading Chinese language travel service platform Ctrip, between 26 December and 5 January, search interest for outbound flights from Mainland China increased by +83% compared to the previous two-week period, with outbound flight bookings increasing by +59% over the same period.

Lunar New Year – Top ten China domestic destinations

1	Shanghai
2	Beijing
3	Sanya
4	Guangzhou
5	Chengdu
6	Shenzhen
7	Kunming
8	Hangzhou
9	Chongqing
10	Haikou

Source: Ctrip

Lunar New Year – Top five Southeast Asia destinations for Chinese travellers

1	Thailand
2	Singapore
3	Malaysia
4	Cambodia
5	Indonesia

Source: Ctrip

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; 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 increased by +85% month-on-month.

The most popular domestic destinations for the Spring festival are Shanghai, Beijing and Sanya, followed by Guangzhou, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Kunming, Hangzhou, Chongqing and Haikou.

Anticipating strong spends through Lunar New Year: China Duty Free Group at cdf Haikou International Duty Free Shopping Complex

Southeast Asia shines

As of 12 January, in the run-up to the Lunar New Year holiday, travel bookings from Mainland Chinese tourists to Southeast Asian countries increased by +1026% compared with the same period last year. The number of air ticket bookings from Mainland China to Southeast Asia increased by +864% year-on-year. The top five most popular destination countries for Mainland Chinese tourists travelling to Southeast Asia during the Lunar New Year holiday are Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia and Indonesia.

According to Ctrip data from 27 December to 11 January, Thailand stands out as a top destination for Chinese tourists during the Spring Festival holiday. During the same period, inbound travel bookings from Thailand to Mainland China doubled year-on-year.

As of 12 January, the number of Mainland tourists travelling to Singapore for the Lunar New Year holiday increased by +499% year-on-year, Malaysia saw an increase of +584% year-on-year, with Cambodia and Indonesia each increasing by more than ten times year-on-year.

With the adjustment of Mainland China’s entry and exit policy, the cross-border travel market is also picking up with embassies and tourism boards across the world targeting Chinese tourists aiming to attract them back to visit their countries.

One example is The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) which launched a campaign called ‘China is Back’ to welcome the return of Chinese tourists. TAT expects more than 300,000 Chinese tourists to visit Thailand in the first three months of 2023 alone.

Trip.com Group’s first livestream broadcast targeting the outbound Mainland Chinese audience recorded sales of more than 20,000 room nights amounting to a Gross Merchandise Value of over RMB40 million (US$6 million).

Duty free sales over Hainan year-end holidays bode well for Lunar New Year

Year-end daily sales in Hainan’s offshore duty free market for the 31 December to 2 January period averaged CNY140 million (US$20.6 million), according to Haikou Customs. Though some beauty companies in particular felt their results were modest, they are optimistic that developments since bode well for Lunar New Year.

In first reporting the figures (since confirmed by The Moodie Davitt Report with the Hainan Provincial Bureau of International Economic Development), state-owned media China Daily noted that average daily sales since mid-December have exceeded CNY100 million (US$14.8 million), according to Haikou Customs.

Haikou Customs said 43,000 people went duty free shopping during the three-day holiday, purchasing some 476,000 units. Average transaction value was CNY9,816 (US$1,450), similar to the same period in 2021.

Prospects look promising for forthcoming China New Year/Spring Festival holidays (21-27 January), given the central government’s recent elimination of most COVID controls across the country and surging visitor numbers and hotel bookings for the Lunar New Year period.

“After China’s optimisation of the COVID-19 measures, business operators expect that the tourism sector will grow vigorously,” Pan Helin, co-director of the Digital Economy and Financial Innovation Research Center at Zhejiang University’s International Business School told China Daily.

This year’s Spring Festival will feature two additional shopping attractions, the cdf Haikou International Duty Free Shopping Complex opened on 28 October and the trial phase of Wangfujing International Duty Free Harbour City in Wanning, which opened on 18 January and drew 45,000 visitors on day one.

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