Financial Services Association, December 25 (Reporter Hu Haoqiong) As New Year's Day approaches, the travel market is dominated by short trips, and there are also tourists who “compete for holidays” to achieve long-term travel.

According to the Chunqiu Travel Agency, the number of bookings for the New Year's Day travel dates has surpassed the same period last year, and the number of domestic travelers has increased nearly 20% year over year. The “vacation” travel time is concentrated around December 28, 2024, and the travel time is within 5 to 9 days. Popular domestic destinations include Changbai Mountain, Lijiang, Shantou, Kunming, Xishuangbanna, Hengyang, Chengdu, and Lanzhou.

Judging from OTA platform data, people from the Tongcheng Travel Research Institute told the Finance Association reporter that around the New Year's Day holiday season is the peak season for snow and ice tours, and “ice and snow routes” reservations for civil aviation are popular. The average price of air tickets from major southern cities to Harbin increased by nearly 30% compared to the non-holiday prices in December, and up nearly 20% from the same period last year.

According to air travel vertical and horizontal data, as of December 24, the number of domestic airline ticket reservations from December 28 to January 5 exceeded 6.54 million, an increase of about 7% over last year. The number of inbound and outbound air ticket bookings exceeded 1.84 million, an increase of about 48% over last year.

“Registration for long-term outbound travel products for the Spring Festival has basically been completed, and short-term, visa-free, and domestic destination products are still being accepted. Among them, the Spanish and Portuguese routes are relatively cost-effective during the Spring Festival, and sales are good.” Li Mengran, media PR manager of Zhongxin Travel (002707.SZ), told CFA reporters that the trend of tourists traveling “one south, one north” is still very obvious.

Furthermore, the Financial Services Association reporter learned that in terms of spring and autumn travel, up to now, the number of outbound travel bookings has increased by about 100% over the same period last year. According to Guangzhou Travel, a subsidiary of Lingnan Holdings (000524.SZ), the UK, Eastern Europe, and Nordic countries have begun to stop accepting customers one after another, and registration for Central and Western Europe, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, and some Middle East and Africa travel routes is expected to close in early January; in terms of domestic travel products, the price of about 80% of products during the winter vacation (including the Spring Festival) is expected to drop by 10% to 40%.

It is worth mentioning that today, Japanese Foreign Minister Tsuyoshi Iwaya revealed at the ministerial “Japan-China High-Level Cultural Exchange Consultation Mechanism” meeting that the conditions for issuing Chinese tourist visas to Japan will be relaxed, and implementation is expected to begin in the spring of 2025 after preparations are completed.

However, some industry insiders told the Financial Federation reporter that since the implementation period of the policy is still unclear, the measure will not have an impact on the Spring Festival travel market for the time being.

According to data from Where to Go, on December 25, the search index for flights to Tokyo and Osaka increased 20% month-on-month. During the Spring Festival, ticket prices to Tokyo, Japan fell 20% year on year, but were higher than during the low season.

On the airline side, since December this year, in order to meet travel needs for New Year's Day and Spring Festival, many airlines have frequently opened international routes.

A Financial Services Agency reporter learned that since mid-December, Juneyao Airlines (603885.SH) has successively launched the Shanghai-Sydney intercontinental route and the Shanghai-Melbourne route. As a result, the available supply to and from Melbourne in the Chinese market also exceeded the same period in 2019. The number of international short-term flights of Juneyao Airlines during the Spring Festival travel season is expected to increase by 45% year-on-year, and the number of seats will increase by 29%.

China Eastern Airlines (600115.SH) launched 3 new international routes in mid-December: Harbin-Kunming-Bangkok, Changchun-Yuncheng-Kuala Lumpur, and Changchun-Shanghai-Pudong-Bangkok. Up to now, China Eastern Airlines' flight volume to Southeast Asia has recovered to 131.6% in 2019.

Looking at domestic routes, during the 2025 Spring Festival travel season, civil aviation domestic routes generally showed a trend of “volume increase and price decline.” An industry insider told the Financial Federation reporter that the drop in ticket prices was mainly due to a recovery in capacity.

According to data provided by Tongcheng Travel, while ticket prices for major routes have declined slightly compared to the same period last year, overall passenger traffic has maintained an upward trend, and traffic and lodging traffic in some popular destinations is expected to reach new highs.

Tongcheng Travel predicts that during the 2025 Spring Festival travel season, ticket prices for major domestic routes will generally remain high. The average ticket price is expected to rise by more than 60% compared to the low passenger flow period before the Spring Festival travel season. Return tickets for some popular routes during the Spring Festival holiday season are already showing signs of rising.

According to flight manager data, as of December 23, the average domestic economy class fare (excluding tax) for the 2025 Spring Festival travel season decreased by 2.2% compared to the same period in 2024. The overall average daily capacity (number of seats) for the Spring Festival travel season is expected to be about 279.8 seats, an increase of 17.8% over 2019 and an increase of 5.9% over the same period last year.