To adapt to the change of tourists' demand from sightseeing to vacation, many small cities have launched a number of boutique cultural and tourism dramas based on their own characteristics, making vacation and in-depth travel experiences richer.

Where is the hottest place for "May Day" travel? What new trends are emerging in the tourism market? On April 16, Ctrip released the "2024 May Day Tourism Trend Insight Report". Judging from the current booking situation, this year's "May Day" tourism popularity has increased steadily on the basis of last year's high. Unlike short-distance travel during the Qingming Festival, "May Day" medium- and long-term travel has become the protagonist, and China's long-distance travel orders account for 56%.

County tourism is popular

This year's "May Day", tourism enthusiasm has achieved a steady growth on a high basis. Ctrip data shows that the search popularity of domestic hotels and air tickets has increased slightly year-on-year. From the overall booking situation, Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Nanjing, Xi'an, Wuhan, Guangzhou, and Changsha are the top ten popular tourist destinations for the "May Day" holiday. With the improvement of infrastructure and tourism reception capacity in various places, more and more sinking market tourist destinations are becoming popular, such as Tianshui, Xuzhou, Zibo, Hefei, Nanchang, Jingdezhen, Shijiazhuang, Yantai, Huangshan and other cities, which have become the cities with the fastest growth in hotel bookings during the "May Day" holiday.

A phenomenon worthy of attention is that the tourism market in fourth-tier and below cities, especially in counties (county towns and county-level cities), has grown significantly, bringing new volume. According to Ctrip data, hotel booking orders in the county market during the "May Day" holiday increased by 68% year-on-year, and scenic spot ticket orders increased by 151% year-on-year, with a growth rate higher than the Chinese market. Cities such as Tumushuke, Baoshan, Huaihua, Chifeng, Hotan, and Heze, which have branch airports, have seen a significant year-on-year increase in air ticket bookings, most of which exceeded 50%.

Why has county tourism become popular? In fact, county tourism showed certain potential as early as 2022. The "China County Tourism Research Report 2022" shows that in 2022, the top 100 counties in China's county tourism comprehensive strength will achieve an average total tourism revenue of 14.53 billion yuan, and the average total number of tourists received will be 13.2627 million. Zhao Bo, a tourist who loves niche attractions, told reporters: "The natural scenery of some county towns is actually very beautiful, and the tourism resources are rich and distinctive. After staying in the busy metropolis for a long time, I really want to go to some comfortable small cities to find a "paradise" feeling during the holidays." While attracting foreign tourists, local residents' tourism consumption has also grown rapidly. During the "May Day" holiday, tourism booking orders in fourth-tier and below cities increased by 140% year-on-year, also outperforming the Chinese market, and the growth rate was significantly higher than that of first- and second-tier cities. Zhang Wensong, a local tourist in Yancheng, Jiangsu, takes his son to different scenic spots for "micro vacations" almost every weekend. With more places to go, he has also unlocked some new ways to play, such as visiting night markets, watching performances, and taking cruises. In the past two years, in order to adapt to the change of tourists' demand from sightseeing to vacation, many small cities have combined their own characteristics to launch a number of boutique cultural and tourism dramas to enrich the experience of vacation and in-depth travel.

Post-00s carry the banner for Internet celebrity cities

Post-00s young tourists represented by college students (18 to 22 years old) are gradually becoming a new force in the tourism market. From Zibo to Harbin, from Tianshui to Kaifeng, to watching ships at Dalian Port East Fifth Street, to checking in at "Disney" in Chengdu, Internet celebrity tourist cities are inseparable from college students. During this year's "May Day" holiday, the "post-00s" college student group is still active. According to Ctrip data, the proportion of travel orders for "post-00s" reached 31%, an increase of 20% year-on-year.

According to Ctrip's booking data, during the "May Day" holiday, the favorite tourist destinations of the "post-00s" group are Chongqing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Beijing, Nanjing, Tianjin, Xi'an, Changsha, Chengdu, and Qingdao. Traveling with roommates and travel partners, tasting local food, taking photos, and visiting museums have become the favorite travel methods for college students. On the eve of the "May Day", Ctrip successively cooperated with the cultural and tourism departments of Yantai, Dongying, Anshan and other places to carry out campus promotion, launched activities such as train ticket subsidies and setting up check-in points to attract college students to visit the destination.

"Post-90s" and "Post-80s" and other working people in the workplace use the "May Day" holiday to get rid of the "work smell" on their bodies. During the "May Day" holiday, the travel orders of "post-90s" and "post-80s" accounted for 58%. Office workers rushed to be "microphone masters" at the music festival, took their pets to camp by the river, and made appointments with friends to climb mountains as "travelers"... The search popularity of concerts and music festivals increased by more than 10 times year-on-year, and the booking orders for mountain scenic spots increased by 29% year-on-year.

On the Ctrip platform, Deng Ziqi's Tianjin concert, the 2024 Thomas and Uber Cup in Chengdu, and music festivals in Tianjin, Xiamen, Changzhou and other places held during the "May Day" holiday were popular with tourists and had high search popularity. Due to the two concerts of Richie Jen and Joker Xue in Taiyuan, hotel orders for the May Day holiday increased by 105% year-on-year, of which 90% were from other places.

Self-driving and green became the keywords

In May, the climate in many parts of China was pleasant, suitable for parent-child and family travel. According to Ctrip's car rental data, family travel accounted for 45%, and the booking models were mainly SUVs and business cars, and the number of RV bookings increased by nearly 7 times year-on-year.

Most tourists prefer more relaxing tourism projects, choosing to watch the stars in the countryside away from the city and taste local seasonal food. During the May Day holiday, rural travel bookings increased by 42% year-on-year.

More and more people are starting to join the ranks of self-driving and enjoy the scenery along the way. During the May Day period, Ctrip's self-driving car rental orders in China increased by 40% year-on-year, of which 42% were new customers; overseas self-driving car rental orders increased by 132% year-on-year, of which 60% were new customers. Urumqi, Yining, Chengdu, Sanya, Kashgar, Shanghai, Xining, Lanzhou, Kunming and Haikou are popular destinations for self-driving tours during the May Day holiday. Yantai, Datong, Taiyuan, Ningbo, Hulunbuir and other places are "dark horse" destinations with a relatively fast year-on-year growth in car rental orders. Key self-driving routes such as the Northwest, Southwest and Hainan are popular with tourists. Wuyishan National Park No. 1 Scenic Road was officially put into operation during the May Day holiday, driving a 60% year-on-year increase in car rental and self-driving orders in surrounding cities in Fujian and Jiangxi.

Even when going abroad, tourists are no longer in a hurry to buy, but instead make an appointment with a local guide and follow the "locals" for an immersive experience: experience desert sand rushing in Dubai, visit parks in Osaka, and take a one-day food tour in Kuala Lumpur. In the first half of April, the number of orders for local guides abroad on the Ctrip platform increased by 60% year-on-year, and it is expected to increase by 90% year-on-year during the May Day holiday.

During this year's May Day holiday, another significant change is that the concept of green environmental protection is becoming more and more popular among travelers, and more travelers choose products with the "low-carbon hotel" label on Ctrip. According to hotel booking data, Ctrip's low-carbon hotel orders increased by 51% year-on-year, among which the orders of "post-90s" increased by 77%, becoming the fastest growing customer group. Bringing your own toiletries has become a new trend among young people, and actively rejecting "disposable toiletries". On the premise of reducing the use of disposable plastic products, it can also ensure that guests stay comfortably and at ease. Hebei, Anhui and Fujian have become the top three provinces in terms of the growth of low-carbon hotel orders.

Orders for low-carbon cars for airport pick-up and local drivers and guides increased by 24% year-on-year, of which new energy orders accounted for nearly 90%, reaching 87%, so that the journey is accompanied by green all the way. Travelers in South China have become the spokespersons for "walking green", with the highest proportion of new energy car orders, reaching 97%; the growth of new energy car orders in East China is the fastest, with a year-on-year increase of 48%. The concept of "sustainable travel" is being integrated into the consumption of more Chinese travelers, and more and more travelers are promoting low-carbon travel through personal practice and comments to influence more people.

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