The Sept. 29-Oct. 6 holiday encompasses both Mid-Autumn festival and the National Day break, which doesn’t always happen as the date of the former depends on the lunar calendar. The extra day is a bonus after the population was essentially denied the opportunity to travel during the years of Covid-19.
Higher fares to some degree reflect the growing popularity of some of China’s more far-flung destinations, made more appealing by the longer holiday, online travel agency Tongcheng said in a report. Places such as Xinjiang, Tibet, Qinghai, Ningxia and Heilongjiang in the far northeast are among the most popular. There are more than 10 times the number of searches for Xinjiang-related travel packages than a year ago, according to the report.
Outbound travel is also finally picking up, with momentum gathering after Chinese authorities lifted a ban on group tours in August. Favorable entry policies in countries like Thailand have also helped. Data from flight-tracker Umetrip show bookings for international routes are approaching 1 million for the holiday period.