The Central Meteorological Observatory will continue to issue an orange warning for severe convective weather and a yellow warning for heavy rain at 6 o'clock on April 30, and it is expected that from 8 o'clock on April 30 to 8 o'clock on May 1, there will be thunderstorms with strong winds or hail above level 8 in parts of southern Hunan, eastern and southern Jiangxi, eastern Zhejiang, northern and southwestern Fujian, eastern and southern Guangxi, western and north-central Guangdong. Some areas had continuous rainy days during the May Day holiday.
The topic of "canceling the 'May Day' trip because of the weather" rushed to the top of the hot search on Weibo on April 30, and some netizens reported that they may change their travel plans due to rainy days.
The first financial reporter learned from tourism companies and platforms such as Ctrip, Tongcheng, Tuniu, Fliggy, Qunar, Chunqiu, Mafengwo and Little Pig B&B that continuous rainy days in some areas did have an impact on some short-distance tours, and some tourists changed their travel plans. However, there are also Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, western Gansu, western Qinghai and other places with scarce rain during the holiday, and the temperature is generally higher than that of the same period in normal years, which is conducive to travel. The "little sun" cities in these areas have seen a 30% increase in tourism popularity during the holiday, while hotels in some areas have fallen instead of rising during the holiday, with a price reduction of about 20%.
Where doesn't it rain on May Day?
Mafengwo big data shows that in the past week, the popularity of "where to play on May Day" has increased by more than 148% month-on-month. Natural scenic spots have become the first choice for people to travel, and outdoor areas such as hiking, cycling, and camping have been revitalized, and the popularity of "hiking and mountaineering" has increased by 300% in the past week. Food has become one of the main influencing factors for young people to choose destinations in recent years, with the popularity of "niche food destinations" increasing by 133%.
Tuniu's GMV on April membership days exceeded 58 million, of which nearly 50 million were for vacation products, a year-on-year increase of more than 200%. In Tuniu's April Members' Day holiday bookings, 30% of the bookings were made for the May Day holiday.
Tuniu said that the first wave of travel during this year's May Day holiday peaked on April 27, and some tourists chose the "please take 3 days off and 9 off" strategy, that is, take leave or compensate for the holiday from April 28 to 30, so as to get a long holiday of 9 consecutive days from April 28 to May 5. The peak of travel during the May Day holiday is mainly concentrated from April 30 to May 3, and the peak of travel and return is expected to occur on May 1 and May 5 respectively. In terms of popular source destinations, tourists from Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, Tianjin, Suzhou, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Shenyang, Xiamen and other places have a stronger willingness to travel. 2-day and 5-day itineraries were the most popular, accounting for 27% and 23% of trips, respectively. At the same time, nearly 17% of tourists choose to travel for more than 5 days, and they prefer to leave before the holiday to avoid the rush hour.
According to Tuniu's latest May Day booking data, domestic long-haul tours are the choice of more tourists, accounting for 46% of the total number of trips, while local and peripheral tours account for 23% of the total number of trips.
"The rainy days in many places during this holiday will indeed affect travel to a certain extent, but because the 'May Day' travel is mainly medium and long-term, the guests who have booked a long-term tour will not easily change their itinerary, and most of the people who will change their itinerary are short-distance tourists who decide to travel temporarily. Zhou Weihong, deputy general manager of Spring and Autumn Tourism, told the first financial reporter.
Tongcheng and Ctrip also reported that long-haul tours have not changed much, but some short-haul or island tourists will temporarily modify their itineraries.
It is worth noting that there are also many "little sun" cities with sunny weather. According to China Weather Network, during the "May Day" holiday, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, western Gansu, western Qinghai and other places have little rain during the holiday, and the temperature is generally higher than that of the same period in normal years, which is conducive to travel. Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Shaanxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Jiangsu, Anhui and other places have good weather in the early part of the holiday. The weather in Yunnan, Hainan and other places is hotter, such as Haikou, the maximum temperature during the holiday is mostly above 30 °C.
According to incomplete statistics from Ctrip, many popular destinations do not rain for 4~5 days during the May Day holiday. Including Harbin, Shenyang and Dalian in the northeast, Beijing, Tianjin, Hohhot and Zhengzhou in North China, Jinan, Qingdao and Yantai in East China, Urumqi and Yinchuan in the northwest, Kunming in the southwest, Sanya and Haikou in South China, etc.
These "little sun" cities have seen a significant increase in tourism popularity in recent days. Ctrip data shows that the cumulative search popularity of the above cities in the past week has increased by more than 30% month-on-month. Among them, the popularity of Hohhot has risen by 470%, and the popularity of Harbin, Beijing, and Tianjin has increased by more than 30%.
On the Ctrip platform, in the past week, the number of hotel holiday orders in Sanya increased by 130% month-on-month, the order volume in Urumqi increased by 90% month-on-month, and Kunming, Tianjin, Beijing and other places increased to varying degrees. At present, the fares of many routes destined for "Little Sun" cities have decreased significantly compared with the same period last month.
As the overall weather during the May Day holiday is more sunny in the northern region, the willingness of tourists to go to the north is also obvious. For example, most of the most popular destinations on Ctrip's platform are northern cities, including Xining, Lanzhou, Dunhuang, Urumqi, Yining, Altay, Hohhot, Ulanqab, etc. Qinggan Ring Road, Xinjiang Ring Road, Hohhot Grassland Ring Road, etc. are very popular.
Where can you play when it rains?
A relaxing vacation in the hotel is also a good choice for "May Day" to avoid the rain. In East China and South China, where the probability of precipitation is high during the holiday, in addition to Guangzhou, Changsha and other places with strong convective weather and need to pay attention to early warnings, Chengdu, Chongqing, Nanjing, Wuhan and other cities have increased holiday hotel orders in the past week to varying degrees. At present, users can also see some popular hotel recommendations in the "Little Sun" cities of "May Day" on the "May Day Destination Recommendation" page of Ctrip Hotels.
According to the relevant data released by Little Pig B&B, long-term tourism is hot during this year's "May Day" holiday, with inter-provincial travel accounting for 67%, and the booking of homestays in popular cities during the "May Day" holiday on the platform increased by 73% compared with the same period last year, and some homestays have been full during the "May Day" period. Chongqing, Chengdu, Qingdao, Changsha, Weihai, Xi'an, Yantai, Nanjing, Tianjin, and Wuhan became the top 10 most popular destinations during the holiday. In terms of consumer prices, judging from the current orders, the "May Day" period decreased compared with the same period last year, with an average length of stay of 3.12 days.
Judging from the portrait of the booking crowd, young people in small towns stand out, accounting for the same proportion as Generation Z, tied for the first place. The person in charge of the business of Little Pig B&B said: "The consumption power of young people in small towns is online, and the strong demand for travel is one of the obvious characteristics of this year's 'May Day' holiday. Comparatively speaking, they have a stable income, and the cost of living and pressure are smaller, and they will become the main consumer in the tourism market. ”
During the "May Day" period, the growth rate of homestay orders in niche destinations was fast. According to the report of Little Pig B&B, the niche cities with the fastest growth rate of homestay bookings during the holiday are Zibo, Jinzhou, Tianshui, Taiyuan, Jingdezhen, Kaifeng, Lanzhou, and Jiuquan, with an increase of more than 1 times. Among them, Zibo and Jinzhou have ignited the local tourism market with their "barbecue" food experience, and homestay bookings have increased by more than 3 times year-on-year.
According to data from Huazhu Group, the hotel booking rate for this year's May Day holiday has been flat compared to last year's May Day holiday booking rate, and it continues to rise. The popularity of Internet celebrity tourism cities is still the same. The booking rate of hotels in Chengdu and Chongqing increased by 3 percentage points compared with the booking rate of last year's "May Day" holiday. The hotel booking rate of Tianshui, a "new Internet celebrity", increased by 10 percentage points compared with the booking rate of last year's "May Day" holiday. In addition, third- and fourth-tier cities continue to be hot. For example, in Jingdezhen, Hohhot, Shantou and Zhongwei, the hotel booking rate has increased by more than 10 percentage points compared with last year's "May Day" holiday.
In terms of hotel prices, Qunar data shows that in the popular cities of the May Day holiday, hotel bookings increased by 30% year-on-year, and the average hotel price decreased by 20%. Xiao Peng, a researcher at Qunar Big Data Research Institute, analyzed: "From the perspective of bookings, the number of tourists during the May Day period in 2024 will exceed that in 2023, but the average price paid for air tickets and hotels in popular tourist cities has declined. ”
Cross-border cultural tourism has become a fashion
During this "May Day" holiday, the cross-border consumption of cultural tourism has also become a new way to play.
A few days ago, Fliggy announced that it has jointly launched a new tea tour with Heytea and China Tea Circulation Association, which will allow travelers to explore Anxi, Fujian, the hometown of oolong tea, in a 4-day and 3-night itinerary. In addition to the regular tea garden sightseeing, the product integrates interactive experiences such as tea picking and tea making, new tea tasting, visiting old state-owned tea factories, and studying tea-making intangible cultural heritage skills. In addition, the itinerary also includes classic Quanzhou tour items such as checking in the old block of oyster shell house and hairpin flower in Pupu Village.
Tongcheng Travel is a cross-border joint with JD.com to interpret the "May Day" travel data and found that the sales of hotel camera detectors increased by 200%. Female users will prepare hotel camera detectors in advance to protect personal privacy and security before traveling, and JD data shows that the turnover of hotel camera detectors increased by 200% year-on-year. Post-90 house stars prefer portable cameras and Bluetooth speakers,Jingdong3C During the digital travel season,The turnover of portable projection categories increased by more than 80% year-on-year。 During the "May Day" holiday, the popularity of hotel bookings in the business districts around popular concerts and music festivals increased by more than 2 times year-on-year, and young people choose to use mobile phone gimbal stabilizers to record "professional-level scenes", Jingdong data shows that users in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai are more inclined to choose to carry mobile phone gimbal stabilizers when they go to concerts, and power banks have become a must-have "artifact" for young people.
According to industry analysis, tourism topics and tourism products that are closely integrated with culture, folk customs and lifestyles have continued to become popular "out of the circle", which indicates that the market conditions for the integration of culture and tourism have matured. How to inject cultural connotation into the tourism experience in a deep and creative way to truly touch the hearts of the younger generation of consumers will be a new topic on the supply side.
Outbound travel is heating up
"May Day" and the spelling holiday have gradually heated up outbound travel.
Spring and Autumn Tourism said that the number of outbound travel bookings during the "May Day" holiday increased by more than 3 times compared with last year. During this year's "May Day" holiday, the overall situation of outbound tourism was outstanding. Especially for the European long-haul, the volume of the group between April and May has recovered to the same period in 2019. The Balkan region of Eastern Europe, as well as the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, have become popular destinations for this holiday season. With the change of seasons at the end of March, the increase in the number of Spring Airlines' international flights, and the convenience of visas, short-haul destinations such as Bangkok, Phuket, Jeju Island, Singapore and Chiang Mai have once again become popular destinations for outbound travel during the holidays.
With the return of international cruise ships this year, the familiar scene of "a hundred flowers blooming" in Shanghai Wusongkou International Cruise Port has reappeared. Aida Modu, Glory of the Mediterranean, Royal Caribbean Ocean Spectrum, etc. provide tourists with multi-dimensional cruise travel options.
Fliggy's data shows that during the May Day period, the per capita purchase price of international air tickets fell by 19% year-on-year. Up to now, the number of outbound cruise product bookings has increased by more than 16 times year-on-year, and some outbound travel products are continuing to replenish inventory.
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