Many provinces have issued travel guidance for the upcoming five-day May day holidays, asking residents to stay put and requiring nucleic acid test results to travel.
“Can I still join local tours?” and “Can I travel outside my home province?” were among the most discussed topics on Weibo on Wednesday 27th.
May day holiday, from April 30th to May 4th (5-day holiday), would usually be a golden opportunity for tourism, this year however, holidays are overshadowed by the Omicron flare-ups and local authorities are urging residents to stay put, as a travel rush could elevate the risk of virus transmission amid outbreaks seen in several Chinese cities.
As of April 25th, about 52 percent of tourism bookings for the holiday made through Ctrip were within the users’ own provinces. In Guangdong and Sichuan provinces, this figure is close to 80 percent.
Tours to rural areas are expected to increase, with bookings for hotels in rural areas jumping to 560 percent of that of the Qingming Festival in April 3-5. Nearly 30 percent of the bookings are for family groups.
Travel platform Qunar.com said hotel bookings in many cities are at a five-year-low for the May Day holidays, and many luxury hotels in Beijing, Chengdu in Southwest Sichuan Province, Southwest Chongqing municipality, Xi’an in Northwest Shaanxi Province, Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province, and Sanya were only charging half the rates they had last year.
Going camping close to home has also become a favoured leisure activity. Data showed in April camping-related searches doubled from the previous month, and bookings for camping products increased five times compared with the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday.
Ticket sales for parks that can accommodate camping activity increased by 50 percent from last year’s levels and camping-themed travel services saw bookings triple, according to Qunar.com.
Related article: May Day celebrations, China and around the world
