China hits Dragon Boat Festival travel booking peak

Passengers run to catch a train at Nanjing Station in the capital of Jiangsu Province on May 5. [Photo by Yang Bo/China News Services]
Travel bookings during the Dragon Boat Festival entered their peak period this week, the Beijing News reported on Monday.
Some 100 million trips are expected to be made during the three-day vacation, according to Ctrip, an online travel booking platform.
Airlines bookings for travel during the Dragon Boat Festival increased 260% year-over-year, according to data from Fliggy, the online tourism arm of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
Hotel bookings saw their biggest increase – 800% on an annual basis – and parent-child travel increased 320% year-over-year, according to the report.
About 43% of people booked accommodation for two nights and 32% for one night, followed by bookings for three nights, which accounted for 21%, according to the host family booking platform Muniao.
According to Fliggy, Shanghai, Beijing and Hangzhou are the top three travel destinations during the Dragon Boat Festival.
Bookings for photo shoot tours have increased 400% year over year, and car rental trips have increased 860% year over year.
Sanya in Hainan Province (southern China), Chengdu in Sichuan Province (southwest China) and Haikou, the capital of Hainan, are the top three car rental destinations, according to Fliggy data.
Most travelers prefer medium to short distance trips during the Dragon Boat Festival holidays, which lasts June 12-14.