China’s annual Spring Festival travel rush, a 40-day period commonly referred to as the world’s largest annual human migration, commenced yesterday ahead of an extended Lunar New Year holiday.
This year’s Lunar New Year, ushering in the Year of the Horse, falls on Feb. 17 and will be accompanied by an extra-long nine-day public holiday in China, running from Feb. 15 to 23.
It is hoped a longer holiday (last year’s break was eight days) might prompt Chinese consumers to boost consumption by spending more on travel and meals this festival period.
Photo: Reuters
Many Chinese consumers have been shaken by the nation’s uncertain economic outlook and would rather save than spend. Homeowners have seen their assets depreciate in a years-long property market slump, while weaker growth momentum since the COVID-19 pandemic has added to job insecurity.
That said, a state planning official last week said that China expects a record 9.5 billion passenger trips to be made during the period, surpassing the 9.02 billion trips made last year.
“Why do I feel it’s even more stressful to buy tickets this year compared with last year? For example, the flight back to my home is already sold out,” said 32-year-old Liu, a traveler flying out of Guangzhou airport yesterday. “If you don’t buy early, the price range fluctuates a lot, and can even double.”
Major travel platforms reported Lunar New Year bookings already surpassing last year’s levels. According to data from Flight Master, as of the middle of last month, bookings for domestic flights during the holiday exceeded 4.13 million, up about 21 percent year-on-year.
Popular outbound destinations are concentrated in Southeast Asia, with those flights accounting for nearly 50 percent of the total and Thailand among the leading destinations.
Following a geopolitical spat between China and Japan late last year, routes to Japan have dropped sharply, down more than 40 percent, according to Flight Master.
Domestically, culturally rich “intangible heritage towns,” such as such as Huangshan in Anhui Province, Jingdezhen in Jiangxi Province, Quanzhou in Fujian Province, Foshan in Guangdong Province and Zigong in Sichuan Province have emerged as popular destinations, online travel agency Qunar said.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
RSS