BEIJING - China is bracing itself for a record-high travel rush over the Labour Day holiday.
Popular sightseeing spots are selling out of tickets, and some cities are cautioning would-be visitors about overcrowding as domestic tourism rebounds after Beijing ended Covid-19 curbs.
The authorities are expecting 19 million trips to be made across China’s vast railway network on Saturday, the first day of the five-day holiday.
That would be the highest number of rail trips made in a single day in the country’s history.
On May 1 last year, 4.4 million rail trips were made. That was also the period when China locked down several cities, including the financial hub Shanghai, to battle the spread of the virus.
The last peak on the same day was in 2021, when 18.8 million such trips were made.
Over the 40-day Chinese New Year travel period in January-February this year, 348 million trips were made in total, or about 8.7 million trips a day on average, according to the National Railway Administration.
The May holiday is far shorter than the Chinese New Year and October Golden Week holidays.
But it is traditionally still one of China’s busiest travel seasons as spring moves into summer.
This year, the holiday is seen as crucial for the tourism industry and the wider Chinese economy as the country strives to recover from years of disruptions cause by anti-coronavirus measures.
“It took me a lot of effort to get a ticket, it’s hard this time,” said Ms Di Jingshu, 21, as she waited for a train at Shanghai’s packed Hongqiao railway station on Thursday.
China’s aviation authority said it expects air passenger trips to reach a total of nine million over the five days.
Booking sites for popular scenic spots such as Beijing’s Old Summer Palace and the Badaling section of the Great Wall showed they were sold out of tickets for the first few days of the Labour Day holiday.
Trip.com Group said that reservations across its online travel platform had surpassed 2019 levels.
Zibo, a small city in China’s coastal Shandong province, which caused a stir on Chinese social media in recent weeks for its local barbecue cuisine, imposed an upper limit on Sunday on hotel room rates.
Three days later, it issued a public letter warning would-be visitors its downtown hotels were fully booked.
“Passenger traffic has exceeded our accommodation capacity,” it said, pleading for understanding should service levels fall short given the anticipated swelling of visitor numbers.
Outbound travel for the holiday, however, continues to remain constrained, in part due to a shortage of international flights.
But bright spots were emerging in cities such as Macau and Indonesia’s Jakarta, according to a report from travel data firm ForwardKey’s.
“Bookings for outbound travel are around 50 per cent behind the pre-pandemic levels,” it said.
“Chinese travellers have started to travel abroad but are still preferring destinations within the Asia-Pacific region.” REUTERS
