Alibaba Group’s online travel platform Fliggy just released a report showcasing its travel insights for the recently concluded three-day Qingming Festival holiday period.
For this year’s holiday, savvy travelers who headed overseas strategically extended their trips by taking four extra days off before the holiday, creating nine-day international getaways.
Indeed, bookings for outbound trips made two days prior to the holiday were up by 20 percent year on year.
Meanwhile, the sale of tickets for overseas attractions rose by 56 percent, while that of railway tickets abroad surged by 293 percent.
Fliggy analysts also noted a 172 percent increase in overseas cruise bookings for the holiday season.
Destinations of choice for outbound travellers included Japan, Hong Kong SAR, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Macau SAR, France, and Australia.
But while many opted for these classic standbys, a growing number have sought to go farther afield, booking trips to Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Netherlands, and Italy.
Qingming Festival domestic travel in 2025
The report also noted that, when it came to domestic travel in China for the festival, average spending per person was up by almost five percent.
Meanwhile, medium-distance road trips appeared to be the vacation of preference for many holiday-makers, and car rental orders surged by 41 percent year-on-year.
Likewise, many travellers opted to drive themselves to such destinations as Chengdu, Haikou, Sanya, Guangzhou, Kunming, Hangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Dali, and Xi’an.
The most visited cities for this year were Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Nanjing, Chongqing, Wuhan, and Xi’an.
However, a growing number of travellers made their way to second-tier cities like Zhangjiajie, Jingdezhen, Qingyuan, Zhoushan, and Taizhou.
There was also a notable increase in bookings for outdoor activities for this year, as tea-picking tours were up 20 percent, and edible foraging tours by 47 percent.
Likewise, cultural heritage tours featuring intangible cultural heritage sites and hands-on workshops grew by 68 percent year-on-year.
