China's travel market gears up for Mid-Autumn Festival surge

Destinations within a two-hour drive or three-hour high-speed rail trip are popular. Ten most popular domestic destinations include Beijing, Chengdu, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Xi'an, Kunming, Hangzhou and Changsha.

On the first day of the festival, highways were expected to record 200 million passenger trips and 33-34 million passenger vehicles, with trips to nearby cities and trips to visit relatives as the main travel purpose.

On the same day, railways were estimated to have 16.8 million passenger journeys, and airlines to have 1.89 million passenger trips with over 15,000 scheduled domestic flights.

Data from Ctrip, a Chinese travel agency, showed that the average price for a one-way domestic ticket during the festival was 770 yuan (about $109) including tax, which was 25 percent lower than last year.

This year's festival saw a double-digit increase in bookings for hotels, domestic car rentals and tickets compared with the festival in 2019, according to Fliggy, a Chinese online travel services provider.

Chinese-style night tours, such as lantern displays, night cruise ships and moon viewing flights, have become a hot spot for cultural tourism during this year's festival.

Tongcheng, another online travel services platform, reported a 77 percent surge in searches for night tours in ancient towns and gardens and a 42 increase in searches for night cruise ships.