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Tourists Flock in Suburbs as Duanwu Approaches
en.hangzhou.com.cn   2021-06-16 13:55   Source:

The appeal of summer slowly unfolds amid the fragrance of mugwort and a bite of the delicious zongzi. Duanwu Festival (Dragon Boat Festival), a state-statuary festival following the May Day holiday is right around the corner and once again energizing the tourism market. Staycation will be the mainstream travel model for this Duanwu. Ctrip, Qunar, LY.com and other online travel agencies predict that this year’s Duanwu will see the number of travelers exceed that of the same period in 2019, and more than 60% of tourists will go for spots in their own provinces.

Almost instantly after the May Day holiday, the tourist lodges in the popular Qiandao Lake Scenic Area were hit again by an influx of orders for the upcoming travel peak. From as early as May 6, travel agents from Zhejiang New World International Tourism in charge of intra-provincial travel have begun looking for the most cost-effective B&Bs for a potentially large number of individual tourists coming out for Duanwu. Their quest for B&Bs competitive in privacy, scenery, location and cost will last until early June, during which the demand will grow so dramatically that travelers, if not act early, will have to find a room in one of these B&Bs by serendipity.

Ms. Zhou, an insider from marketing department explained that for a three-day holiday like Duanwu, the trip was bound to be short, which made Jiande, Tonglu and Qiandao Lake in Chun’an ideal destinations for such short trips. Take Qiandao Lake, self-driving tourists there usually favor independent B&Bs with butler service or boutique hotels (B&Bs) with entertainment facilities for kids. As such combinations are quite popular, the closer Duanwu is, the fewer choices left.

"Students and their parents generally prefer short trips to long ones in the season of exams, and the market has echoed the preference with differentiated prices for short and long trips." Lan Xiang, director of the Big Data Research Institute of Qunar, said that the hotel bookings for Dunwu increased by 20% compared with Qingming holiday (Tomb Sweeping Day), with resort hotels continuing to be the most searched and booked category. At the same time, plane fares saw a moderate fall, but since the summer vacation for school students is around the corner, the average ticket price will rise again in about half a month.

Data shows that Hangzhou-Kunming is one of the most popular routes during Duanwu for those departing from Hangzhou. Based on the estimation by Ctrip, the average air fare for June 14 to 17 was 772 yuan, much lower than the average 1150 yuan between July 1 and August 31 and 50% lower than that of the same period in July.

According to Ctrip, despite being slacker than the May Day holiday, the three-day Duanwu holiday still holds promise for short and medium distance trips. On Ctrip, nearly 50% of users bought travel services no farther than 300 kilometers from where they live; more than 60% chose to travel within their own provinces. It is also worth noticing that "Z generation", by definition, teenagers born after 2000 who just entered the mainstream consumer market has surpassed those born after 1970s in becoming the age group that traveled the most during Duanwu.


Author:  Editor:Wang Jian
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