Financial Services Association | New Consumer Daily, April 28 (Researcher Liang Youyun) The countdown to this year's “May 1st” holiday has reached its end. Vacation travel, transportation and accommodation costs are topics that can never be avoided. Shortage of supply of high-speed rail, flights, and hotels due to concentrated tourist travel is the focus of recent netizens' comments.

Recently, quite a few travelers who have booked their holiday itineraries in advance have discovered that the prices of some tickets for the “May 1st” holiday have dropped drastically.

According to Fichangzhun data, in the 7 days before the holiday, the average domestic economy ticket price for the “May 1st” holiday was 852 yuan (excluding tax), down 1.13% from 2023, and 22% from last week's average price. Although temporary price cuts by major airlines have also occurred on the eve of many holidays before, such drastic and obvious price cuts are still uncommon.

Some industry insiders claim that the price reduction is a temporary oversupply and temporary price adjustment promotion caused by airlines to cope with demand for new flights and increased flights.

Reduced flight prices?

Since 2024, the scale of domestic flight execution has continued to rise. According to flight manager estimates, domestic civil aviation passenger traffic in March this year was about 57.39 million, an increase of 7.3% over 2019; with the increase in the number of flights operated, the overall capacity increased by about 12.7% compared to 2019, and has recovered to around 112.7% in 2019.

Furthermore, in the first quarter of this year, several domestic airlines announced that they will continue to introduce several large airliners. Beibu Gulf Airlines, China Airlines, and Eastern Airlines have already received several flights, some of which have already been used for passenger transportation during the Spring Festival and Qingming holidays.

According to Feichang's data, domestic airports are expected to take off and land a total of 151,600 flights during the May 1st holiday this year, with an average daily take-off and landing of more than 30,000 flights, an increase of 8.99% over last year's May Day holiday and a 36.2% increase over 2019. Since the increase in flight schedules exceeds the growth rate of passenger traffic, this year's “May 1st” holiday is bound to be even busier, and it is more likely that popular cities and niche cities will “pick up missed tickets at low prices” during the holiday period.

However, it is important to note that during the “May 1st” holiday, when travel was concentrated, even though ticket prices fell year on year, there was a marked increase compared to daily prices and the Qingming holiday. According to the Tuniu holiday travel report, the average ticket prices for popular routes such as Beijing-Shanghai, Chengdu-Sanya, and Shanghai-Beijing during the “May 1st” period increased by about 20%, 47%, and 55%, respectively, compared to before the “May 1st” holiday.

Is the hotel currently experiencing another wave of price increases? Regulatory requirements standardize operations

Tourists' worries are not only about cancelling airline tickets and picking up missed trips; rising hotel prices and broken contracts and refunds have once again become a topic of conversation.

Since April, consumers have successively filed complaints about unexplained price increases and order cancellations for no reason on the Black Cat Complaint Platform. Among the many complaints, many merchants used methods such as delays in order confirmation, insufficient rooms, and forced cancellations to raise the price and then put up the room again. There was even a strange situation where the price increased 1.5 times in one minute and the price changed 6 times within a few minutes.

In response to this situation, law enforcement authorities in many places have recently issued early warnings to step up supervision and inspection efforts against illegal acts such as price hikes and price fraud.

On April 28, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei market supervisory authorities in popular tourist regions jointly issued a reminder to strengthen price regulations for scenarios such as product retail, hotel accommodation, catering services, scenic spot ticketing, entertainment, passenger transportation, etc., prohibiting price fraud and enforcing clear pricing.

Meanwhile, market supervisory authorities in popular tourist provinces and cities such as Anhui, Liaoning, Zhangjiajie in Hunan, and Ulanqab in Inner Mongolia have also issued reminders and cautions one after another, requiring merchants to operate in good faith and in accordance with the law, and welcome visitors to actively report complaints to local supervisory authorities when they encounter illegal businesses to protect their rights and interests.

Inbound and outbound tourism “two blossoms”

The five-day “May Day” holiday also gave many tourists time to go abroad and have fun.

The China Institute of Tourism Research predicts that the number of outbound tourists will reach 130 million in 2024, and “May 1st” will usher in a new peak of outbound travel within the coming year. Many Asian countries have become the first choice for outbound travel, such as Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, and visa-free Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. Meanwhile, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, which are a little far away, have also become popular destinations for this “May Day” holiday.

According to flight manager data, in March this year, the number of international flights in China recovered to 69.8% in 2019. Among them, Malaysia recovered to 73%, Singapore 89%, Thailand 59%, Japan 66%, and South Korea 82%. As demand recovered, flights to Europe grew faster, with Germany recovering to 82%, the UK 114%, Italy 141%, and the Netherlands 74%.

Since 2023, China's visa-free policy for many European and Asian countries has fueled the popularity of inbound travel. According to Ctrip data, the number of inbound travel bookings for the “May 1st” holiday in places such as Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Chengdu increased by more than 100% year-on-year, while Xi'an, Chongqing, Kunming and other places exceeded 200%.

As travel and business exchanges between China and foreign countries become more frequent, the pace of international flight resumption is expected to accelerate this year. The Civil Aviation Administration of China predicts that international flights will reach about 6,000 weekly flights by the end of 2024, returning to 80% in 2019.