Domestic, international trips rise as many vacationers opt for higher-end flights, hotels and cultural experiences

China's five-day May Day holiday saw the country's biggest travel bonanza since the COVID-19 pandemic began over three years ago, and more people traveled greater distances and chose higher-end options, industry experts said.

The figures exceeded those of 2019 in some categories as pent-up demand is unleashed.

The tourism sector still has huge potential for the latter half of the year, experts said.

During the Dragon Boat Festival in June, summer vacation and the National Day holiday in October, the market is expected to see successive peaks, said Guo Lechun, vice-president of the big data research institute of Qunar, a Beijing-based online travel agency.

The May Day holiday, from April 29 to May 3, served as the first long national holiday since China optimized its pandemic prevention and control measures and restarted quarantine-free cross-border travel in January.

During the break, the average distance that Chinese tourists traveled by plane was 1,638 kilometers. The distance almost matched the level of 2019, prior to the pandemic, according to Trip.com Group, China's largest online travel agency.

An increasing number of Chinese tourists pursued higher-quality experiences and booked first-class and business-class flights. During the holiday, the booking volumes of flights in those two classes surged nearly 80 percent compared with the same period in 2019, and the growth rate was higher than that of economy class.

Some other travelers chose to take chartered flights, and their main destinations included Koh Samui, Thailand; Okinawa, Japan and the Maldives, Trip.com said.

"For this year's May Day holiday, the most distinguishing feature was the strong release of pent-up demand for long-haul travel. It has driven the recovery of many related sectors such as catering, accommodations, transportation and shopping," said Peng Han, director of strategic research at the research institute of Trip.com.

The holiday saw more than 80,000 domestic flights in total, and the daily average level rose by 15 percent compared with the same holiday in 2019. The average price of a one-way domestic flight during the break was 1,211 yuan ($175), including tax, which jumped by 39 percent over 2019, according to FlightAI, a market insight platform affiliated with Trip.com.

The number of international flights during the holiday was about 40 percent that of 2019. Flights from the Chinese mainland to Macao, the United Arab Emirates and the Maldives saw higher booking volumes compared with the same period in 2019, FlightAI found.

During the break, the total volume of orders for flight tickets and hotels for outbound travel from the Chinese mainland soared nearly 900 percent and 450 percent year-on-year, respectively, Trip.com said. That was a peak in the past three years for national holidays, the company said, and in-depth tours organized by smaller groups were more popular among Chinese travelers, Trip.com said.

Li Fangping, a 58-year-old retiree who lives in Beijing, joined a 10-person group and traveled to Russia with her husband for a week during the holiday. While a frequent traveler previously, she hadn't traveled abroad for more than three years. It was her first trip overseas since the start of the pandemic. The group was paired with a tour guide and a driver.

"My birthday fell during the trip. The tour guide prepared a celebration for me, which was such a surprise. I definitely enjoyed the tour, which included convenient services and a lot of free time," Li said.

This year, Chinese travelers have increasingly preferred private and tailored group tours. During the holiday, the booking volume of private tours surged nearly 900 percent compared with 2019, according to Trip.com.

Top overseas destinations included those in Asia such as Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul and Tokyo, and the booking volume of flights to and hotels in those places largely exceeded the 2019-level, the agency said.