Download
China awaits another travel surge as Dragon Boat Festival holiday begins
CGTN
Passengers in Dali East Station in Dali, southwest China's Yunnan Province, June 21, 2023. /CFP
Passengers in Dali East Station in Dali, southwest China's Yunnan Province, June 21, 2023. /CFP

Passengers in Dali East Station in Dali, southwest China's Yunnan Province, June 21, 2023. /CFP

The three-day Dragon Boat Festival holiday from June 22 to 24 is expected to see another surge in tourism in China.

The China Tourism Academy (CTA), data center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, estimated more than 100 million trips will be made during the Dragon Boat Festival, an increase of 30 percent year on year, and expected tourism revenue of 37 billion yuan ($5.15 billion), an increase of 43 percent year on year. 

Both exceed the level of tourism trips and tourism revenue over the same period in 2019.

Dai Bin, CTA president, told China Media Group that China's tourism economy has entered a new phase of full recovery as the number of trips made on this year's Labor Day reached 119 percent of the same period in 2019. 

On June 21, 13.862 million trips were made on China's railways, an increase of 1.458 million trips and 11.8 percent compared with the 2019 Dragon Boat Festival holiday, according to China State Railway Group.

China's railways are expected to transport 71 million passengers from June 21 to 25, with June 22 the peak day, the group predicted.

A forecast report on travel trends released by Ctrip, a Chinese online travel agency, suggests that the top three domestic destinations for the Dragon Boat Festival holiday are Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou.

In terms of popular high-speed rail lines, booking data suggests passengers will mostly use lines within 300 kilometers each way, such as Shanghai-Hangzhou, Shenzhen-Guangzhou, Beijing-Beidaihe and Beijing-Tianjin.

Domestic tourism in 2023 is projected to reach 4.55 billion visits, a 73 percent year-on-year increase that will bring it to 76 percent of 2019 levels, according to a report by the CTA.

Search Trends