A record 1.52 billion inter-regional trips are expected during this year’s May Day holiday in China, which runs from May 1 to 5, up 4% from last year, as multiple cities will experience a 17-day travel boom from April 24 to May 10.

According to travel platform Qunar, domestic hotel, flight, and scenic spot bookings for the two weekends surrounding the holiday are up 20% from last year. Road travel will dominate, accounting for 91.6% of all trips, with an average 64 million vehicles navigating expressways daily, according to transport authorities. 

Family travel has emerged as the primary driver of the travel rush, as more than 60 localities across China have granted students an extended spring break that merges with the official holiday. According to Qunar, flight bookings from Yueyang and Zhangjiajie in central Hunan province, where students are granted a spring break, have surged by 3.8 times and 2.2 times year-on-year, respectively.

On travel platform Mafengwo, searches for family travel and road trips were nearly 200% higher than last month, with related ticket bookings rising 75%.

Amid rising uncertainty in outbound travel, many tourists are traveling domestically, which could make this holiday the “busiest on record for domestic tourism,” according to domestic media.

Qunar data indicates that bookings for multi-city itineraries — involving hotels in two or more cities — have risen by 118% year-on-year. Domestic car rentals increased nearly 60%, with five days as the average rental period.

Among the most popular road-trip destinations are Urumqi in the northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Chengdu in the southwestern Sichuan province, and cities in the southern Hainan province.

Amateur football leagues across the country have also extended their schedules into the holiday period, attracting tourists. According to online travel platform Fliggy, in the eastern Jiangsu province — home to the viral Suchao League — chartered car bookings rose 45% year-on-year, while hotel bookings increased by more than 50%.

Concerts, music festivals, and cultural events have also significantly boosted tourism. Qunar data revealed that concerts by the popular Taiwanese rock band Mayday drove a 91% increase in hotel bookings near their Beijing venue. Data from travel platform Tujia also showed that a music festival spurred an 800% surge in homestay bookings in Luzhou city in Sichuan.

According to Mafengwo, events including the Beijing Music Festival and Chengdu anime conventions drove an average 141% increase in tourism-related searches for their host cities from the same time last year. Searches for new activities, such as viewing jacaranda blossoms in the southwestern city of Kunming, outdoor adventuring at Guangzhou’s Canton Tower, and riding the seaside train in the coastal city of Xiamen, are all up by more than 100% from last year. 

Editor: Marianne Gunnarsson.