As “China Travel” goes viral, the first day of the eight-day Spring Festival holiday saw new records set in cross-border tours, travel agencies said today.
This year is the first Spring Festival after it was recognized by UNESCO on December 4 as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity and the first time the holiday features eight days, leading to a rising number of Chinese choosing to travel abroad, according to Trip.com.
Trip’s data shows that on Tuesday, the first day of the Spring Festival, there is a double-digit growth of outbound travel orders compared with the same period last year, with orders for overseas car rentals and tickets rising by more than 70 percent.
Popular outbound travel destinations of Chinese tourists include Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia, said Trip.
Tuniu, another online travel service provider, reported a 23 percent increase in tourists heading outbound on Tuesday, with Japan, Thailand, Maldives, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam popular destinations, besides China’s Hong Kong and Macau special administrative regions.
The orders on Tongcheng Travel for tours setting off on Tuesday doubled from last year’s first day of the Spring Festival holiday, with Japan and South Korea the most popular destinations, while bookings for hotels in Japan, Spain and Italy tripled on the platform.
CFP
Visitors admire the lanterns from the iconic Zigzag Bridge at Yuyuan Garden on Monday.
With the introduction of visa-free policies and “China Travel” going viral online, the number of foreign visitors who came to China for the festival has grown by around 150 percent from the same period in 2024, setting a new record for inbound arrivals, according to Trip.
Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia are the top sources for inbound travelers. Among all the countries and regions, South Koreans are the most willing to come, with two out of every 10 foreign travelers arriving during the Spring Festival period being South Koreans, and the number of South Korean arrivals tripled compared with the same period in 2024.
As a major feature of this year’s Spring Festival, traditional intangible cultural heritage displays are found to be popular among foreign tourists.
Data from Trip’s overseas platform shows that in the past month, the number of orders for tickets for traditional intangible cultural heritage projects such as lantern exhibitions and Peking Opera by overseas tourists has increased by more than six times year on year.
This year, the Yuyuan Garden Lantern Festival in Shanghai not only attracted a large number of domestic tourists but also became a popular destination for inbound tourists.
“I experienced the most authentic and fascinating Chinese culture and began to understand the special significance of the Spring Festival for Chinese people,” said Rafael Antonio Saavedra Molina, a traveler from Venezuela.
,https://www.shine.cn/news/metro/2501287569/