China's tourism sector is seeing another booking frenzy ahead of the five-day May Day holiday, with long-haul domestic trips and outbound tours being particularly sought by visitors, industry players said.
Economy-class flight tickets on several popular routes are sold out and only business-class tickets are still available, said Beijing-based travel agency Qunar.
总部位于北京的旅行网站去哪儿表示,一些热门航线的经济舱机票已经售罄,目前只有商务舱机票在售。
"Demand for travel during the May Day holiday this year has been strong, and there are insufficient flight tickets on some routes. We suggest that passengers wishing to travel purchase their flight tickets as soon as possible," said Xiao Peng, a researcher with the big data research institute of Qunar.
The travel peak is expected to commence as early as Saturday, as some workers may take three days off, from April 28 to 30, to extend that into an eight-day-long holiday period.
Bookings of packaged tourism products such as group tours, self-driving tours and cruise voyages have been climbing, said Tuniu, a Nanjing, Jiangsu province-based online travel agency.
总部位于江苏南京的旅游网站途牛表示,团体游、自驾游和邮轮游等打包旅游产品预订量持续攀升。
Shanghai; Beijing; Sanya, Hainan province; Nanjing, Jiangsu province; and Guangzhou, Guangdong province are among the popular tourist destinations.
上海、北京、三亚、南京、广州是热门旅游目的地。
"Japan, the Maldives, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and New Zealand have witnessed robust bookings. Some European countries such as Spain, Portugal, Germany, France and Switzerland are also hot picks by Chinese travelers," said Qi Chunguang, vice-president of Tuniu.
The search volumes for flight tickets have also increased significantly.
机票搜索量也大幅增加。
For instance, on April 16, the search volume surged 130 percent over the level of April 15, according to VariFlight, an aviation data and solution services provider.
根据航空数据和解决方案服务提供商飞常准的数据,4月16日的机票搜索量比4月15日的上涨130%。
Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, and Singapore are hot outbound tour destinations as far as flight searches go.