Inbound, outbound air ticket bookings up 14% for Lantern Festival: platform

The buzz around "China Travel" continues to dominate social media, as industry data show that bookings for inbound and outbound air tickets saw double-digit growth for the Lantern Festival travel, driven by rising demand.

As of Tuesday, inbound and outbound air ticket bookings for the Lantern Festival or on Wednesday exceeded 200,000, a year-on-year increase of 14 percent, Umetrip, an official mobile platform for real-time flight information, told the Global Times on Tuesday. 

The top three inbound and outbound routes during the Lantern Festival are from Shanghai to Tokyo, Shanghai to Osaka and Shanghai to Hong Kong, the platform said. 

Zhao Cen, a Beijing resident, just wrapped up a trip to Singapore with his family on Tuesday. They visited three zoos there including the night safari, and went crazy for the giant freshwater fish and the beasts. 

"Watching the beasts at night was shocking, and it was an unforgettable trip for us," he told the Global Times.  

China's northeastern provinces are reporting a surge in inbound foreign visitors attracted by the ice and snow facilities, boosted by the country's visa facilitation measures and the promotional effects on winter sports from the ongoing Harbin Winter Asian Games 2025.

Changchun Longjia International Airport in Changchun, Northeast China's Jilin Province, handled nearly 30,000 passengers in January, up 42.7 percent year-on-year, the Jilin Daily reported on Tuesday.

"During this snow season, overseas guests account for around 20 percent at Club Med's domestic ski resorts and we believe this trend underscores China snow resorts' ability to attract global consumers," said Anastasiya Kulish, a vice president of operations of Club Med Premium All-Inclusive resorts, Asia-Pacific. 

Kulish told the Global Times that during the Spring Festival holidays, the brand's ski resorts achieved a remarkable performance, with the Changbaishan Resort reaching an average occupancy rate of 95 percent, and the Beidahu Resort one of 88 percent.

The "China Travel" craze has attracted global attention in recent months thanks to the continuous efforts of the Chinese government of launching visa-free policies.  

China has implemented a complete mutual visa exemption with 26 countries. "We have issued a unilateral visa-free policy for 38 countries, including France and Germany, a visa-free transit policy for 54 countries, and reached mutual visa-free agreements with 157 countries and regions," said Lin Jian, a spokesperson of China's Foreign Ministry, on December 17, 2024. 

To further expand visa-free travel, China eased and improved the visa-free transit policies, extending the permitted stay for eligible foreign travelers to 240 hours, or 10 days, from the original 72-144 hours. Twenty-one ports of entry and exit have been added for visa-free transit individuals. 

During the Spring Festival holidays, cross-border travel orders increased by 30 percent year-on-year, among which inbound ticket orders increased 180 percent year-on-year, while inbound travel hotel orders increased more than 60 percent year-on-year, said Trip.com.

The actual number of passenger flights on international and regional routes was 18,400, an increase of 21.4 percent compared with the Spring Festival in 2024, data from VariFlight showed.

During the eight-day Spring Festival holidays, China Eastern Airlines' Japan route flight volume increased by 54 percent year-on-year, and passenger volume increased by 71.2 percent year-on-year, the company told the Global Times. 

Singapore witnessed an increase of 23.2 percent in terms of flight volume, the airline said.