More people will choose to go for sightseeing tours during the upcoming Labor Day holiday as the previously three-day holiday will be expanded to a four-day event.
According to a tourism forecast report released by a travel agency, 160 million trips will be made during the Labor Day holiday. 49% of them will choose to make holiday tours over a period of 4 to 6 days. 31% of them will spend the holiday by visiting nearby areas.
This year, the Labor Day holiday will be expanded to four days.
The pre-planned one-day break falling on May 1 will be adjusted to a four-day holiday starting from May 1 to May 4 while April 28 and May 5 will be work days.
The Labor Day holiday, used to be a seven-day break, was shortened to three days in 2007.
With the Labor Day holiday expanded to four days, travel agencies have made swift response by releasing related tourism products. For example, Luoyang and Yuntaishan in Henan province has been added as destinations on four-day tours while Anhui and Shandong have been included as new attractions aside from Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai on three-day tours. Cities such as Nanjing, Suzhou, Yangzhou and other cities in Jiangsu and Zhejiang will be popular destinations as there will be an increase in the number of people choosing to travel on the highway due to the toll-free policy for passenger cars with seven seats or fewer during the holiday.
The number of people signing up for outbound trips will also increase substantially with the USA, France, the UK and the Maldives remain popular among the holidaymakers.
With the gradual warming of the tourism market, the cost of traveling is also rising with trips to surrounding areas expected to rise by nearly 20%, averaging around 2,000 yuan per person. At the same time, spending a night at bed and breakfasts and hotels will increase by about 25% year on year.
