Tourists keen to celebrate during holiday

Tourist destinations with sense of celebration and ski and beach resorts are proving popular for the upcoming three-day New Year holiday, travel agencies said. 

The popularity of tours to domestic destinations surged 320 percent during the holiday compared with normal, and watching the first sunrise of the year in Fuyuan County in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, counting down to the new year with firework shows at the Chimelong Tourist Resort, and hiking in Tibet are among the most popular celebrations, said Shanghai-based online travel operator Trip.com. 

Shanghai, Hangzhou, Changsha, Nanjing, Sanya, Xiamen and Harbin are among the most popular hotel-booking destinations during the holiday, and the price of hotels in popular cities has grown 20 percent on average for the holiday with New Year’s Eve the most expensive, it said. 

The surge hit 54 percent and 30 percent for high-star hotels in Zhangjiakou, co-host city of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics in north China’s Hebei Province, and beach resort Sanya compared with normal. 

Ski resorts such as Zhangjiakou, Harbin and Mudanjiang are among the most popular destinations, according to Trip.com, and some hotel rooms in Zhangjiakou and Changbai Mountain had been almost fully book in early December. 

"I have been addicted to skiing recently and have booked a three-day tour to Changbai Mountain for the holiday," said Chen Yi, a Shanghai resident in her 30s. 

"The winter scenery of the mountain should be impressive as well, thus I will take my parents there," she said.

The Wawu Mountain scenic area in Hongya County of Sichuan Province is a "black horse" ski resort with a search index soaring 747 percent from normal, Trip.com said. 

Macau is also gaining popularity with tourists during the holiday. 

Bookings for hotels in Macau surged 451 percent on the platform for the period between December 31 and January 3 from the same period a month earlier, and there had been a 229 percent surge in flight bookings, the travel operator said. 

Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou, Nanjing and Xiamen will have the largest number of tourists in Macau during the holiday, according to the platform. 

Amy Yu, a Shanghai resident, has booked a trip to Macau. 

"The pandemic makes it impossible to travel far for shopping this year, and I want to buy some luxury goods like bags there to celebrate my birthday," she said. 

Online travel operator Tongcheng-Elong said the holiday travel peak will begin on Wednesday.

Booking air tickets close to departure dates had grown significantly because of a few COVID-19 cases in some domestic cities, which made those planning trips during the holiday more cautious, the travel platform said. 

Guangzhou is the most popular hotel booking destination on the platform due to its warm climate, and Changsha, Chengdu, Xi'an, Harbin and Yichang are major destinations based on railway and coach ticketing figures, it said. 

Changbai Mountain, Meili Snow Mountain, Wusong Island, Kanas and Mohe County, the most northern places in China where the northern lights can be seen, are most favored for those in search of snow, while warmer destinations such as Hainan, Guangdong and Yunnan are also popular, it added.