May Day Holiday travel surge boosts hopes of post-COVID recovery

The five-day May Day holiday looks set to be a landmark long weekend for the travel industry as Chinese travelers arrive at their favorite destinations in record numbers.

In China, authorities are expecting 270 million trips per day over the break, with Beijing International Airport set to see a big surge in passenger numbers and more than 900,000 trips expected. That is up 20 percent compared with last year.

Chinese travel platform Qunar.com says international flight bookings for the first day of the holiday have hit a record high - increasing 20 percent compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019.

Chinese travelers have booked hotels in more than 1,000 cities around the world. Air ticket bookings have doubled for flights to European countries, including the UK, Hungary, Ireland, Spain, and Croatia.

However, the top three destinations for Chinese travelers remain Thailand, Japan, and Malaysia, mainly due to visa-free entry and the depreciation of the Japanese Yen.

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Gary Bowerman is the Director of Check-in Asia and an expert on Asian travel and consumer trends and admits there are few surprises when it comes to the most popular destinations for Chinese tourists but some new ones are coming into view.

"The usual suspects really. You look at Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, also Australia," he said. "If you look at the first quarter of the year, for example, 78 percent of Chinese travelers stayed within the Asia Pacific region. So that's eight out of ten travelers.

"You can see that the concentration of travel and the dispersion is pretty similar to what it was pre-pandemic. You will see growth in some areas, particularly the Middle East. You're seeing a lot more airline capacity into destinations such as Turkiye, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Those are growth destinations."

China's travel industry showed positive signs of recovery last year but it is hoped 2024 will move it back to somewhere near pre-COVID levels following the enormous global disruption caused by the pandemic.

"Ask any destination or any person in the travel industry, that's the billion-dollar question at the moment. I think the one thing that we have to always bear in mind across Asia Pacific is that we experienced Covid very differently in terms of the lockdowns and the closure of travel than the rest of the world," Bowerman added.

"What we saw in 2023 was a gradual recovery. Internationally, we're seeing a stronger recovery from the Chinese outbound market. But even the aviation regulator in China is saying that overall, this year you're probably looking at about 80 percent of international capacity compared to 2019.

"When you look at the full year figures at the end of this year, some destinations will be probably a little bit more pleased than others."

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