Tongcheng Travel: The popularity of "May 1st" holiday travel in 2025 may reach a peak not seen in the past 3 years.

On April 15, TONGCHENGTRAVEL released the "2025 May Day Tourism Trend Insight Report" (referred to as the "Report" hereinafter). The report shows that this year's May Day holiday, the popular travel demand represented by non-first-tier city users will continue to drive the booming development of the holiday economy. Through methods like combining holidays, users will not only have more time to explore more "hidden gem" county towns, but their travel destinations will also expand from domestic to overseas. TONGCHENGTRAVEL data shows that in addition to popular domestic destinations like Beijing, Chengdu, and Shanghai, countries like South Korea, Japan, Singapore, and Thailand will also see more tourists leaving their travel trail. With the increasing potential of tourism consumption, the booking heat of domestic high-star hotels far exceeds three-star and below hotels. The report, based on data analysis from TONGCHENGTRAVEL platform, predicts that the travel popularity for the 2025 May Day holiday may reach its peak since 2023, with the travel peak expected to occur in the two days before the holiday. The May Day holiday market is expected to show characteristics of high demand and supply locally, with a trend of strong emphasis on quality leisure vacation. The "4-day leave for 10 days off" strategy is cost-effective and offers better value by avoiding crowds. TONGCHENGTRAVEL data shows that after the Qingming holiday, domestic and international air ticket prices remain relatively stable. International air ticket prices are expected to rise from the week before the May Day holiday, reaching a peak on April 30 and May 1, with a small increase even after hitting bottom on May 3. Domestic air ticket prices are expected to start rising from April 28 and peak on the day before the holiday (April 30) and the last day of the holiday (May 5). Prices are expected to significantly drop on May 3, but the price drop for domestic air tickets will be less than international air tickets. In recent years, combining holidays has become a topic of discussion before short holidays. Combining TONGCHENGTRAVEL's travel data, the "4-day leave for 10 days off" strategy is more cost-effective for this year's May Day holiday. From the fluctuation range of air ticket prices, assuming that users choose to "start the journey after work on April 25, take a 4-day leave from April 27 to April 30, and return on May 3", users can not only have a 10-day long holiday, but also avoid peak travel and price hikes, and have ample rest time for the remaining 2 days of the holiday, avoiding "holiday syndrome". TONGCHENGTRAVEL data shows that during this year's May Day holiday, the top ten popular domestic destinations are Beijing, Chengdu, Shanghai, Kunming, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Xi'an, Harbin, and Shenyang. Chengdu, which has gained popularity due to the success of the movie "Nezha 2", will maintain a strong tourism popularity. Many users are attracted by Chengdu's slow-paced lifestyle and cannot help but exclaim, "It's great." Whether choosing to combine holidays or not, many tourists will travel farther during the May Day holiday, with Seoul in South Korea, Osaka, Tokyo in Japan, Singapore, and Bangkok in Thailand being the top five popular outbound destinations, with Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, and Jeju Island also being highly popular. It is worth noting that during this year's May Day holiday, various airports will continue to welcome a large number of first-time fliers. Data shows that in recent years, the number of ordinary workers traveling by plane has steadily increased, and students are another rapidly-growing group of "first-time" travelers. Therefore, TONGCHENGTRAVEL, along with several domestic airports, has launched the public service program "First-time Travel without Worry, Smooth Journey" to provide first-time travelers with a series of special "treatment" such as priority boarding, access to VIP lounges, etc. The first batch of cooperation covers hub airports such as Wuhan Tianhe Airport, Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, Zhengzhou Xinzheng Airport, Guiyang Longdongbao Airport, and Chongqing Jiangbei Airport. The TONGCHENGTRAVEL Research Institute believes that as the popularity of domestic and outbound tourism markets continues to rise, recent measures such as the "buy now, claim tax refund on departure" for overseas shoppers, are expected to make inbound shopping travel a new trend for "China Travel," further promoting the prosperity of the inbound tourism market. "County vacation" is just right, and hotel bookings in tourism-strong counties are offering great value. TONGCHENGTRAVEL data shows that since April, the booking interest in high-star hotels far exceeds that of three-star and below hotels, with a growth rate of over 34% for 4-star hotels compared to 3-star hotels, showing a difference of nearly 10 percentage points. This growth trend is expected to continue into the May Day holiday. With the continuous optimization of tourism infrastructure, in recent years, the popularity of county-level tourism markets has continued to rise. Taking a vacation in a hotel in a county area is particularly popular among many young consumers during the holiday. Combining the price trends and booking popularity of hotels analyzed by TONGCHENGTRAVEL, locations like Baishan in Jilin, Wenchang, LingShui, Wanning, and Baoting in Hainan, Kunyu and Kashgar in Xinjiang, Deqen in Yunnan, and other places are expected to be popular destinations. Opening the TONGCHENGTRAVEL APP, it was noted in mid-April that the price for a luxury sea-view room in a high-end international hotel in Wenchang, Hainan was less than 700 yuan on regular days; on the first day of the May Day holiday, a boutique hotel near the Sanya International Duty-Free City offered a single room with a one-day yacht tour, professional travel photography, tax-free shop coupons, and a suite with two bedrooms exceeding 80 square meters, priced at less than 520 yuan. This not only demonstrates enough price sincerity, but also fills the quality accommodation's value-for-money. In order to meet consumers' pursuit of value for money in hotels, TONGCHENGTRAVEL APP launched the activity "Hot Package 50% off Pre-sale", covering over 20,000 hotels nationwide. For example, the price discount for vacation hotel packages in the Suzhou area can reach up to 3000 yuan, some vacation hotel products can be chosen for weekend stays and enjoy expired refund, no-loss refund, and anytime refund. "Exhibition Market" mass product launching using AI for travel planning becomes a new trend. With the strengthening trend of local and outbound vacations, various tourist destinations are relying on the...In order to enhance the immersive experience of the scenic area, the tourism attraction has launched activities such as flower exhibitions and intangible cultural heritage markets to extend the length of tourists' stay and enrich their vacation experience.Data from TONGCHENGTRAVEL shows that as of mid-April, the search volume for marketplaces and night tours during the "May Day" holiday has increased by 220% compared to the previous month. Popular marketplaces include Yongle Market at the Beijing Pinggu International Peach Blossom Festival, intangible cultural heritage market at the Wanhua Festival at the Shouxihu Lake in Yangzhou, Peony Market in Luoyang, and Guanqian Street Market in Suzhou. Many of these marketplaces open from mid-April and continue until the "May Day" holiday. In addition, to improve the cost-effectiveness and quality of consumer holiday experiences, TONGCHENGTRAVEL has launched holiday products with buy-one-get-one-free, half-price for the second person, and a discount of a thousand yuan. The promotions cover popular tourist destinations such as Xi'an, Guilin, Bangkok, and Phuket. For example, a 6-day 5-night group tour in Bangkok can be joined by two people for 880 yuan, and the prices will not be raised during the "May Day" holiday. Since the beginning of this year, major OTAs have launched generative AI products based on DeepSeek reasoning capabilities, setting off a trend of "everyone being a traveler." TONGCHENGTRAVEL's "Chengxin AI" uses multi-picture and text recommendations, multilingual scene coverage, multi-faceted functional updates, and a one-stop closed loop from content to transactions to provide users with more intelligent travel decision-making references. Before the "May Day" holiday, TONGCHENGTRAVEL's "Chengxin AI" will also add the functionality of "AI hand-drawn itinerary maps" to enhance the playability and social attributes of AI-generated travel guides. After users obtain a complete picture and text travel guide through "Chengxin AI," they can click on "AI hand-drawn itinerary map" to generate a whimsical hand-drawn itinerary planning map. Both the picture and text guides and AI-generated maps support backend operations and multiple language versions.