As China braces for the most scorching summer since 2016, the country’s tourism market is also heating up in step and on track to comprehensively exceed that of 2019.
Airports and train stations nationwide have been busy in the first week of July, with people taking vacations, visiting family and friends, and students going on summer trips, industry observers said.
Some 97,000 flights operated from July 1 to July 7, exceeding the pre-COVID level seen in the same period of 2019.
On July 7, daily passenger flights in the country topped 14,000 for the first time this year, according to VariFlight, a China-based civil aviation data services provider.
Popular routes included flights from Beijing Capital International Airport to Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport, and Shanghai Hongqiao to Shenzhen and Guangzhou of Guangdong province, VariFlight found.
Trip.com Group, China's leading online travel agency, said it saw record high booking volumes of domestic flight tickets in the first five days of July, while the number of bookings for outbound flights surged six times year-on-year.
In the first five days of July, ticket prices for domestic and outbound flights — including taxes — jumped 21 percent and 22 percent year-on-year, respectively, Trip.com said.
In terms of traveling by train, China saw 133 million railway trips during the first 10 days of the summer travel rush that kicked off on July 1, the country's railway operator said on Tuesday.
By the end of July 5, the bookings for short- and long-haul tours rose 29 percent and 64 percent month-on-month, according to Trip.com.
As predicted by travel portal LY.com, the summer period — from July 1 to Sept 1 — will see three travel peaks, with the first wave having begun at the beginning of July when Chinese students started their summer holidays. The second wave will occur from late July to the middle of August, and the last wave will take place around Sept 3, a week before students return to school.
The portal predicted that family trips will see a full recovery this summer, with the number of travelers expected to exceed 2019 summer figures. Cities well known for their cuisine, including Guangzhou and Changsha, as well as Beijing and Chongqing, are popular domestic choices for LY.com’s customers.
Online travel services provider Tuniu also gave an optimistic forecast for the summer, saying that 61 percent of its users booked long-distance trips to destinations such as Yunnan and Xinjiang to enjoy their milder climates and beat the summer heat.
Domestic destinations crowded as ever
Searches for summer-related travel products last week increased by about 20 percent month-on-month, according to data from travel platforms. So far, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Changsha, and other cities are trending.
The popularity of the country’s capital is soaring to an all time high. Official data shows visitors have grown 4.5 times compared to 2019, even under current temperatures of around 40-degrees Celsius.
Take the Palace Museum, an iconic landmark everyone who visits Beijing simply has to go, draws crowds despite soaring heat.
But to get in, you can't just waltz up any time and grab a ticket. It doesn't work like that, especially over the summer vacation.
Instead you need to book tickets online about 7 days in advance, even though they're often sold out within minutes or even seconds after they hit the shelf. To grab a ticket to the Palace Museum, you just have to be as fast as lightning.
On the other hand, as temperatures shoot up, destinations that you can escape the heat and chill look even more attractive than ever. Zhangjiajie in southern China's Hunan Province is a perfect destination for a summer getaway, with its misty peaks and natural forests providing respite from heatwaves sweeping through many other cities in the country.
Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, nicknamed as "natural oxygen bar and summer resort," has also attracted a large number of tourists. From July 1 to 9, the number of ticket purchases in the park exceeded 160,000.
Outbound travel in high demand
Graduation season and the summer break have seen a doubling in the demand for outbound travel compared to 2019, and orders for overseas travel services such as flights, insurance, and hotels have increased rapidly, according to Trip.com.
The current focus of summer outbound travel is on short-haul trips. Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia are the top five most popular destinations for visa applications during the summer season, Trip.com said.
Thailand said it expects to receive 25 million tourists this year, including some 5 million Chinese visitors.
Spring Travel has also seen an increase in demand for trips to Spain, Portugal, France, Switzerland, and the Balkans. Additionally, off-season trips to South Africa during the summer season have become popular.
Since the beginning of this year, China's inbound and outbound tourism has been gradually recovering in an orderly manner. In the second quarter, the passenger volume of cross-border travel in China reached 34 percent of the 2019 level, and doubled the volume from the first quarter.
A report released by the World Tourism Alliance showed the prosperity index for China's outbound travel market in the first half of 2023 exceeded the level of the first half of 2019.
A research report by BOCOM International said mainland tourism expenditure is predicted to rise by 169 percent year-on-year in 2023, reaching 96 percent of the 2019 level. Meanwhile, outbound tourism expenditure in China is expected to increase by 100 percent year-on-year, reaching 40 percent of the 2019 level.
Although the search volume for outbound travel in 2023 has exceeded that of 2019 by 16 percent, the capacity has decreased by 48 percent compared to the same period.
FlightAI predicted that this year's summer outbound travel may experience "high inquiries, high ticket prices, and low capacity" compared to the same period in 2019.
With the acceleration of business and leisure travel, Juneyao Airlines started its first flight from Beijing Daxing to Japan and South Korea on July 1, and increase the number of flights from Shanghai to Singapore from the end of June.
On July 6, Xiamen Airlines launched round-trip direct flights connecting Xiamen and Paris, the 12th intercontinental route of the airline, also the first such route by the carrier since the pandemic. The flights are operated once a week, and the carrier will consider increasing the frequency based on market demand, it said.
However, long-haul outbound trips are still limited due to the time-consuming visa application process for many European countries and the US, according to industry insiders.
For example, in Shanghai, it takes 117 working days to process a tourist visa for Germany, while Switzerland is relatively fast at 54 working days.
Parent-child tours taking off
Some new tourism modalities including "graduation tours", "study tours" and "textbook tours" have rolled out this year to drive the industry to further recover and stimulate consumption potential.
Data from online service platforms Meituan and Dianping show that the searching number for graduation tours surged 1139 percent year-on-year in recent week.
Self-driving tours and package tours are the popular selections for college graduates.
The "study tour" is hot for primary and secondary school students, with their parents preferring to make the summer holiday meaningful.
The sales of "study tour" products have quadrupled from June’s. By the end of June 23, the booking number for some indoor venues' tickets including museums and aquariums jumped 324 percent and 412 percent month-on-month, respectively.
According to Qunar, sales of educational tours were four times higher in June than in May. In particular, bookings for museum visits were three times higher during the period as parents seek shelter from the heat as they travel with their children.
The "textbook tour" - where students visit scenic spots based off what they have seen in their textbooks to experience the cultural background and historical allusion firsthand, has become a new trend of tourist that demands upgrades.
According to Meituan, the searching number for "textbook tours" increased 480 percent year-on-year in the most-recent week.
今年国内多地气温创下历史新高，最“热”暑期游也拉开了序幕。积累了3年的出游需求，将在这个暑假迎来大爆发。
暑运大幕刚刚开启第一周，多地机场和火车站就出现人流“井喷”，旅游度假、探亲访友、学生出行集中。飞友科技统计周报显示，暑期旅客出行意愿高涨，民航业各项指标持续上行。暑运首周（7月1日～7日），国内航线实际执行客运航班量约9.7万班次，超过了2019年疫情前同期水平。
根据中国民航数据服务提供商飞常准的数据，从单日执行数据来看，7月7日国内航线单日客运航班量今年以来首超1.4万班次。热门航线包括从北京首都国际机场到上海虹桥国际机场，以及从上海虹桥到广东省深圳市和广州市的航班。
同程网预订数据显示，暑期亲子游迎来全面复苏，客流高峰将出现在三个时间段，分别是7月2日前后、7月下旬到8月中旬、9月3日前后。
今年暑运前五日国内机票订单达到历史新高，出境机票订单同比增长6倍。长线游成为暑期一大热点。携程数据显示，截至7月5日，暑运前五日周边游、长线游订单环比6月增幅分别为29%、64%，假期直接推动了旅客出游半径、出游天数的拉长。
由于旺盛的出行需求，支撑暑期机票价格大幅上涨，同程网平台2023年暑期国内机票预订均价较2022年同期上涨约32%，较2019年同期上涨约5%。去哪儿平台上，飞往西双版纳、西安、泉州、厦门、揭阳、郑州等城市的机票价格，较2019年增长二至三成，飞往拉萨、长春、哈尔滨等城市的机票价格与2019年持平。热门目的地中，成都机票价格增长5%，广州增长13%，天津、青岛、昆明、长沙增长15%，北京、上海增长二成。
除了航空客流旺，铁路运输也迎来了汹涌客流。国家铁路集团有限公司的统计显示，仅暑运前10天（7月1日至10日），全国铁路共发送旅客就高达1.33亿人次。
热门景区一票难求
7月10日，中国天气数据显示，今年6月以来，北京已有高温日数23天，其中超40℃的极端高温天气达5天。堪称历年最热夏天的北京，碰上了疫情政策调整后的第一个暑假。
近期，关于北京旅游的微博火了，“怎么才能买到故宫门票”、“怎么才能约到清华、北大参观”一类“灵魂发问”高频出现，侧面彰显出今年暑假北京旅游的火爆情况。
大量游客涌入北京，故宫、清华北大等地每日参观数量有限，供不应求。多家旅游平台显示，拥有大量历史景观、非遗人文等资源的北京位居今年暑期游热门榜首，日均接待旅游团数量已达1200个，其中亲子客群是消费主力。
景区预约数据直接反映了当下北京旅游的热度。目前，北京市内各大知名景区均采用“预约制”，且预约开放周期多在7天左右。据去哪儿网数据显示，截至7月3日，暑期北京景区门票提前预订量环比上月增长2.6倍，比2019年同期增长4.5倍，不少景区门票开票即售空。故宫博物院、中国国家博物馆、八达岭长城、天安门广场等多个景点持续处于“一票难求”的状态。
根据文旅部数据中心对中国传统高温城市进行的避暑旅游市场调查数据显示，今年第三季度传统高温城市的整体出游意愿在90%以上，达到94.6%。上海、南京、北京、广州、天津、杭州、深圳、武汉、成都等地用户出游热情旺盛，出游人次名列前茅。
由于厄尔尼诺现象的出现，今年全球比2022年要热。夏季高温频发，避暑纳凉成为许多游客的首要选择，去“山里”享受凉爽等避暑游的需求呈现出明显的增长。
例如，避暑胜地张家界天门山出现持续游客井喷。天门山海拔1518.6米，是张家界最高山，山顶气温常年比市区低6到8℃。又因为天门山纬度高，日照时间比市区长，在此还能感受“天外有天天不夜”的奥妙。
今年6月1日至7月8日，天门山景区共计接待游客26万人，较去年同期增幅76%，其中自由行散客量增幅高达174%。7月初，更是连续出现单日游客接待人数过万的火爆场景。
出境游需求大增
今年暑期，长线游和出境游成为一大亮点。据途牛提供的数据，截至目前暑期出游数据显示，国内长线游已进入第一波出游高峰，出游人次占比达到了66%，周边游和出境游出游人次占比分别为25%和9%。
多家航空公司宣布增开海外航线。吉祥航空宣布，自2023年7月1日起首次开通由北京大兴始发至日韩方向航线，自6月下旬起增班上海至新加坡方向航班。今年7、8月暑运期间，吉祥航空计划执行航班超2.6万架次、预计运输旅客近400万人次。
7月6日，厦航正式开通厦门直飞巴黎定期往返航线，这是厦航开通的第12条洲际航线，也是疫情发生以来，厦航开通的首条洲际航线。该条航班一周一次，后续，厦航将根据厦门-巴黎航线市场适时加大运力投入，并增加班次。
南方航空打算从6月20日起至10月10日期间加班超1.2万班次，总航班量超25万班次。东方航空则打算投入飞机达780余架，旺季高峰期间计划每日班次量达到2990余班，另外东航计划执行加班航班500余班，计划投入的客运座公里超过2019年暑运水平。
按照中国民航局此前的预测，今年暑运期间，预计每日将有近195万旅客通过航空出行，民航部门日均保障航班16500班，恢复至疫情前2019年同期水平。
随着跨境需求的增长，以及国际航空运力的恢复，票价也向疫情前水平回落。FlightAI数据显示，短航线（港澳台、日韩、东南亚）单程票价价差从1月份1513元下降至6月份132元。长航线单程票价价差从1月份4509元下降至6月份1933元。而从不同地区机票均价来看，目前由中国大陆前往港澳台地区、日韩和中东非地区的机票均价已经基本恢复至疫情前同期水平，这些地区也是暑期跨境热门旅游之选。
根据FlightAI数据，2023年Q2跨境市场客运量已经恢复至2019年同期34%，恢复率在Q1的基础上实现翻倍增长。跨境市场运力稳步恢复，6月航班架次已恢复至疫情前的42%。
FlightAI预测，与2019年同期相比，今年夏季出境游可能会经历“高查询、高票价、低运力”。
根据在线旅游平台Trip.com的数据，与2019年相比，毕业季和暑假的出境游需求翻了一番，机票、保险和酒店等海外旅游服务的订单迅速增加。
目前夏季出境游的重点仍然是短途旅行，日本，新加坡，韩国，泰国和马来西亚是夏季签证申请最受欢迎的五大目的地。
泰国表示，预计今年将接待2500万游客，其中包括约500万中国游客。春季旅行中，前往西班牙，葡萄牙，法国，瑞士和巴尔干半岛旅行的需求增加。此外，夏季前往南非的淡季旅行也很受欢迎。
根据世界旅游联盟等机构发布的《2023年上半年中国出境旅游市场景气报告》和《2023年上半年中国入境旅游市场景气报告》，中国游客积压三年的出境游需求集中爆发。2023年上半年中国出境游市场的景气指数超过2019年上半年水平，游客有更强的出行意愿。
交银国际在研报中预测，预计2023年内地旅游支出同比增长169%，恢复至2019年的96%；预计出境旅游支出同比增长100%，恢复至2019年的40%。
然而，随着暑期出游愈发火爆，东南亚旅游产品受到越来越多计划出境旅游市民的关注，然而出境旅游全面复苏仍受到签证要求和国际航班限制等因素的阻碍。例如，在上海，处理德国旅游签证需要117个工作日，而瑞士相对较快，为54个工作日。
亲子游人次占比过半
随着学校放假，中小学生和家长们将大量时间投入到夏季旅行中。亲子游已经成为暑期旅游市场的主力。
从旅客结构看，去哪儿平台上18岁以下、34-43岁这两个群体占比最高，两者相加超过五成，其中儿童占比达到10%。在去哪儿平台上，暑期“人生第一张机票”的预订量超过疫情前，新旅客中儿童旅客增长明显，“遛娃”需求成为消费增长新动力。暑期亲子相关景区提前预订量同比2019年增长7倍。
亲子游出游人次占比逐渐升高，并且已在端午期间迎来了第一波出游高峰。去哪儿平台上暑期亲子游产品订单占比接近四成，同比2019年增长1.6倍；目前在途牛网已预订的暑期出游用户中，亲子游出游人次占比达到了58%。
除了亲子游之外，暑期研学游热度也逐渐高涨。去哪儿大数据显示，6月至今研学游产品销量环比上月增长4倍，暑期室内博物馆门票预订量环比上月同期上涨324%，全国海洋馆门票预订量环比上月同期增长412%。通过文化讲座、科普实验、自然课堂等多重沉浸式体验，研学游让孩子在出游过程中充分感受自然、科学、人文之美，深受学龄前及低学龄儿童亲子家庭的青睐。
在亲子游热潮带动下，多个OTA暑期研学游产品颇受关注。孩子们在出游过程中通过文学讲座、自然科学、非遗传承、手工体验等互动方式，开拓了视野并提升了动手能力。
Executive Editor: Sonia YU
Editor: LI Yanxia
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Writer: Stephanie LI
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