China's Travel Industry Expects More Recovery for Labor Day Holiday

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What's new: The virus-hit travel industry in China may find signs of recovery in the May 1 Labor Day public holiday with a surge in travel plans, based on booking statistics from domestic online travel agencies.

Transportation and hotel bookings on various online platforms show significant growth this month. Ctrip, one of China's largest online travel agencies, by mid-April reported a month-over-month increase of 282% in the number of visitor trips for the Labor Day holiday, while total transport booking volume for the period surged by more than 3½-fold.

The hottest destinations are local tourist sites or areas around travelers' places of residence. Long-distance domestic trips and international travel aren’t expected to revive until after the Covid-19 pandemic is completely over.

Background: Suppressed travel demand since the Covid-19 outbreak in January already made the Qingming or Tomb-Sweeping Festival in early April a smaller event, with more than 43 million visitor trips creating sector revenue of more than 8 billion yuan ($1.13 billion) during the three-day holiday.

Ctrip estimates that the number of visitor trips during the Labor Day holiday will at least double the number for Qingming.

With the five-day public holiday to start May 1, 76.4% of accommodation providers have resumed business, while more than 70% of tourist sites in 10 provinces have reopened, according to data from online ticketing platform Meituan.

Quick Takes are condensed versions of China-related stories for fast news you can use. To read the full Caixin article in Chinese, click here.

Contact reporter Isabelle Li (liyi@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bobsimison@caixin.com)