Tourists view terraced fields in Longsheng, in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. CHINA DAILY
Against the backdrop of pandemic prevention and control, travelers have had to explore new ways to have fun.
Last year, more opted for short-distance trips to destinations that are less than two hours away from their homes, via the country's well-developed high-speed rail system.
The volume of people purchasing such rail tickets grew by 30 percent, according to Trip.com Group, the major online travel agency.
"The growth was particularly evident during holidays," says Liu Fangtong, a publicity officer at the company.
During the Dragon Boat Festival (June 12-14), high-speed rail travelers took journeys lasting around two hours and 13 minutes on average, with a travel radius of 338 kilometers, according to the online travel agency.
The top five high-speed rail travel routes in 2021 were Guangzhou-Shenzhen, Hangzhou-Shanghai, Shanghai-Suzhou, Tianjin-Beijing and Chongqing-Chengdu.
"It was obvious that first- and second-tier cities are the most popular destinations," Liu says.
The average travel distance of Chinese tourists from their homes dropped to 141.3 kilometers last year, as opposed to 213 km in 2020, the China Tourism Academy reports.
Treasured moments in Sanya, Hainan province. CHINA DAILY
Search queries about "short-distance trips" surged by more than 250 percent year-on-year during the weeklong National Day holiday, according to Chinese travel service and social networking platform Mafengwo.
Beijing topped domestic tourist destinations during the holiday, followed by Shanghai and Chengdu, capital of Southwest China's Sichuan province.
A significant number of Chinese have chosen to spend their weekends and holidays at hotels near their homes. This was reflected in a 60 percent rise in bookings of such hotels, says the 2021 travel trend insight report by Trip.com Group.
Rural travel bookings grew by more than 30 percent year-on-year in 2021, the report says.
"It's partly thanks to the nation's rural vitalization policy, which has helped make rural life more attractive," Liu says.
In particular, countryside areas managed to attract a lot of urban dwellers, of whom more than 50 percent were from local urban centers.
Family travelers showed a particular fondness for rural escapes.
Bookings of countryside hotels surged by 55 percent in 2021, as compared with the previous year.
A dizzyingly winding road links villages in Taizhou, Zhejiang province. CHINA DAILY
"We've seen an increase in homestay bookings this year over the pre-pandemic numbers of 2019 among local families and self-drive travelers from Beijing," says Si Xinran, an official with the homestay association of Yanqing district, northwestern Beijing.
The association has more than 120 homestay brands in the suburban district.
More than half of the available homestay rooms were booked throughout the summer vacation last year.
Themed tours were a favorite, including hiking and camping, and travel products featuring sporting elements saw bookings surge by more than 80 percent.
"The most popular among all activities was hiking in the mountains, with orders in 2021 rising by 150 percent over 2019," Liu says.
Camping appealed to many Chinese travelers, allowing urbanites to get away from the hustle and bustle without trekking too far.
Searches for camping getaways increased by a factor of 8 in 2021 compared with the previous year, with an average spend of around 550 yuan ($87), according to the insight report.
Those born in the 1980s and '90s were major customers for glamping, or high-end camping, experiences, each accounting for 40 percent of the market.
During the Labor Day holiday, glamping business owner Dai Zheng received bookings for more than 80 percent of his tents in Shanghai.
"The pandemic has changed the way people travel and brought us great opportunities for development," Dai says.
Shen Guohui from outdoor lifestyle social platform Camplus noticed a significant increase in photos of tents on his WeChat Moments last year. Shen believes the camping business is on the verge of explosive growth, as a larger number of people are relishing the outdoors experience.
According to the 2021 spring and summer season fashion report on China's Generation Z－those born after 1995－by Bilibili and Tmall, social distancing encouraged young people to, instead, get closer to nature.
A canal night scene in Suzhou, Jiangsu province. CHINA DAILY
The surge in interest in camping and glamping has been shown with a 160 percent year-on-year increase in views of camping related video content on Bilibili.
Private and self-drive tours also benefited from the COVID-cautious attitude of travelers.
In 2021, the number of orders for private groups via Trip.com Group increased by nearly 70 percent year-on-year.
Top destinations for private tours include Hulunbuir of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Sanya of Hainan province, Xining of Qinghai province, Guiyang of Guizhou province, Lijiang of Yunnan province and Guilin of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.
On average, each private tour catered to around 3.6 people last year, with per capita spending of 4,200 yuan.
Travelers' preferences for flexibility and a sense of security in a private space fueled the popularity of self-drive tours, which stimulated the need for car rentals.
Trip.com Group reports an 80 percent year-on-year increase in its car rental orders in 2021. Chongqing saw its local car rent business grow by 11 percent over that of 2020.
Moreover, more Chinese travelers turned to livestreaming sales of travel products.
The audience tuning in to Trip.com's livestreams surged by 171 percent in 2021, the online travel agency reports.
The spectacular karst landform in Guangxi's Guilin. CHINA DAILY
About 40 percent of them placed orders within 24 hours and nearly 70 percent made purchases online in 30 days.
"High-quality cost performance, flexible validity period and easy refunds are important driving forces for users to develop the habit of buying online travel products," says Liu.
Those born in the '80s accounted for almost 50 percent of livestreaming sales, and those born in the '90s took up 25 percent. Shanghai, Sanya in Hainan province, Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, Zhuhai in Guangdong province, and Chengdu in Sichuan province were the most favored destinations.
"The main trend is that travel doesn't have to be to faraway places, and localization of offerings is worth trying," tourism expert Xiao Yuanshan says.
Local rural tourism and urban vacations have a sufficient repurchase rate. Although the customer unit price is low, that is not necessarily the case for the profit margin, Xiao explains.
He calls for more focus on rural homestays, as well as the arrangement of social group experiences in the future.
Contact the writer at yangfeiyue@chinadaily.com.cn
