China Travel

China's travel platform advises off-peak May Day holiday travel for lower prices 2025/5/7 source: Print

A Chinese online travel platform recommends off-peak travel for markedly lower prices as this year's May Day holiday, running from May 1 to 5, draws closer, which has already witnessed a notable rise in bookings for both international and domestic flights.

China has seen growing popularity in inbound tourism, driven by recent measures for foreign travelers such as instant tax refunds.

Data from online travel platforms showed that as of now, inbound travel bookings for this year's May Day holiday have surged by 173 percent year on year, with South Korea, Japan, and Singapore emerging as the top source markets for foreign travelers to China.

Meanwhile, some short to medium-haul outbound destinations have become popular choices for Chinese tourists during the May Day holiday.

According to data from Fliggy, one of the country's leading travel platforms, as of Thursday, over 1.03 million flight tickets for inbound and outbound routes during the holiday have been booked, indicating an increase of about 25 percent compared to the same period last year.

"In terms of prices, off-peak travel before the May Day holiday is more cost-effective. For example, round-trip flights between Beijing and Kuala Lumpur from May 1 to 5, excluding overnight flights, cost over 7,400 yuan (around 1,015.3 U.S. dollars), while the same flights booked for April 29 to May 3 are half the price. Round-trip flights between Beijing and Hangzhou from May 1 to 5, excluding overnight flights, cost nearly 3,000 yuan (around 411.7 U.S. dollars), while the same flights for April 29 to May 3 are priced below 1,000 yuan (around 137.2 U.S. dollars), down over 60 percent," said Liu Ting, a researcher at the Big Data Research Institute of Chinese online travel platform Qunar.


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