Capital sees travel booking spike ahead of Universal Beijing Resort’s opening
A Minion ice cream on a stick is seen at the Universal Beijing Resort in Beijing on September 2, 2021. [Photo/IC]
Beijing will become the most popular tourist destination during the traditional Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival as the Universal Beijing Resort plans to officially open its doors to visitors on September 20, ThePaper reported on Thursday.
Search volume for flights to Beijing topped 11 times in 30 minutes compared to the same period last week when the station announced its opening, the online outlet said, citing the online platform Qunar.
Data from online travel agency Lvmama showed that after the announcement, search volume based on the keywords “Beijing Universal” jumped seven times from the same period last month.
Beijing has maintained its lead as the most popular tourist destination for days with its search popularity far ahead of other cities, according to online travel booking platform Ctrip.
On September 6, the number of people booking travel products in Beijing during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday through Ctrip increased eightfold from August 20. , up about 20 percent from last year, Ctrip said.
Outside of Beijing, airline tickets to other cities posted a “good price” during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday.
Currently, the average price of a plane ticket booked through Qunar was only 600 yuan, the lowest price in history, ThePaper said.
Some plane ticket prices are even cheaper than train tickets, such as the plane ticket from Zhengzhou to Ningbo 362 yuan while the price of the second class high-speed train ticket is 528 yuan. The ticket price from Tianjin to Lanzhou is 393 yuan for the plane and 694 yuan for the train, while it is 219 yuan and 757 yuan, respectively, from Xi’an to Kunming.
As the COVID-19 epidemic situation on the Chinese mainland stabilized, some provinces announced the removal of the ban on interprovincial group travel, and some tourist attractions began welcoming tourists. .
Compared to Aug. 20, the volume of inter-provincial group travel and independent travel orders booked through Ctrip jumped 365% on Sept. 20, and family travel order volume jumped 550 percent, ThePaper said. .
Guiyang, Hulun Buir, Chengdu, Sanya, Urumchi, Jiuzhaigou, Hohhot, Xining, Enshi, and Huangshan are popular destinations for family trips.
The short-haul route is still the mainstream, and car and high-speed trains from central towns to neighboring towns and counties are in high demand, ThePaer said, citing online travel agency Tongcheng-eLong.
In addition, many tourists this year choose to spend their mid-autumn vacation in themed hotels. According to Ctrip, the search volume for themed hotels has increased by 82% in recent days.
