Data from relevant platforms indicates that the three-day holiday of this year's Mid-Autumn Festival, positioned between summer vacation and the National Day holiday, features travel prices around 40% lower than those during the National Day holiday. Such high cost-effectiveness has resulted in a surge in travel enthusiasm.
This year, travel during the Mid-Autumn Festival is becoming more down to earth, with "Chinese night tours", centered around moon-admiring culture, emerging as a hot topic in cultural and tourism consumption. As the holiday approaches, activities related to traditional festival customs, such as moon-admiring, lantern festivals, and garden tours, are attracting attention from tourists across various regions.
Train tickets for the night before the Mid-Autumn Festival (September 14th) were officially released for sale on August 31st.
According to data from ly.com, the overall travel market during the 2024 Mid-Autumn Festival is primarily characterized by short-distance trips, with continuing trends of high frequency and diversified demand. The demand for medium and short-distance travel is robust in urban agglomerations such as the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Chengdu-Chongqing city cluster, and Central Plains cities, with the high-speed rail market for trips within 3 hours being the hottest.
On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, searches for "moon-admiring flights" have soared dramatically. Data shows that the search volume for these flights on ly.com in the recent week has increased over threefold compared to the previous week. Additionally, "moon-admiring hotels" recommended by various platforms, tailored to the characteristics of different cities, have also become a focal point of interest.
As of now, ly.com's data reveals that the top ten destinations for travel during the Mid-Autumn holiday are: Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou, Shenzhen, Chongqing, Nanjing, Chengdu, Qingdao, Changsha, and Hangzhou. Notably, travel interest in Suzhou has seen a significant increase, with activities such as crab tasting and moon-admiring gaining popularity among younger travelers.
Shanxi's Datong and Shuozhou, key settings for "Black Myth: Wukong", the domestic game launched in August, are also expected to experience a peak in visitor numbers during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Currently, bookings for Mid-Autumn travel in Datong and Shuozhou have increased by over double compared to last year.
As a traditional festival in China, the Mid-Autumn Festival boasts numerous long-standing customs. The deep cultural experiences offered through "Chinese night tours", such as moon-admiring and garden tours, have become highlights of cultural tourism consumption during the 2024 Mid-Autumn holiday. Recent data from ly.com indicates that in the past week, searches related to night tours in ancient towns and gardens across the country have risen by 77%quarter-on-quarter, while the search for night cruises has increased by 42% quarter-on-quarter.
Besides deeply experiencing Mid-Autumn culture domestically, tourists with flexible schedules may even take three days off to constitute an eight-day vacation and start their holidays early, making it possible to avoid the travel peak. Reports suggest that with the accelerated recovery of international flights, the cost-effectiveness of long-haul outbound travel just before and after the Mid-Autumn Festival has become increasingly prominent, leading to a rise in bookings.
Source | Lingnan on the Cloud
