As the year-end approaches, amid freezing weather, "tourist migration to the southeast" from South China, Hainan, to Southeast Asia and the South Pacific has reached the most intense stage of market competition. Major tourist destinations and travel agencies are pulling out all the stops, with booking for subtropical and tropical regions remaining extremely popular. In this emerging global tourism powerhouse, the spectacular trend of "winter sun vacations" has made early booking, off-peak travel, and "not chasing cheap deals" the three golden rules.
According to reports from the China Tourism Academy and major travel agencies, this year has seen a continuous rise in reverse-season travel due to decades-low extreme cold weather across much of China. Hainan International Tourism Island as well as Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan travel remain at high levels, while Southeast Asia and South Pacific island destinations continue to grow in popularity. Both domestic and outbound travel have seen "double peaks."
Thanks to some travelers "combining leave" to create the "longest New Year’s holiday ever," domestic travel to warm coastal destinations such as Sanya and Xiamen has seen significant growth. Analysis from major travel agencies shows that the 2013 New Year’s travel market experienced "explosive" growth compared to 2012, with long-distance domestic travel increasing by over 80%. Routes such as Sanya, Xiamen, and Yunnan all saw notable surges. Data from Ctrip shows that Sanya became the most popular domestic travel destination for New Year’s, with free independent travel bookings up over 80% year-on-year.
As one year ends and another begins, the winter fades and spring arrives. The Spring Festival golden week has always been the peak period for family travel and reverse-season holidays. Locations in the Southern Hemisphere such as Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa have always been among the top choices for Spring Festival travel. As in previous years, they unsurprisingly became the earliest-selling-out Spring Festival routes in 2013. Southeast Asian island products, known for their rich offerings and flexible itineraries, became the new favorite for 2013 Spring Festival travel. Reporters learned from Ctrip that the 2013 island vacation trend led the Spring Festival travel boom. Thailand, Singapore, South Korea, and Southeast Asian islands were all hotly pursued destinations, with product sales exceptionally strong. Most Southeast Asian routes for the Spring Festival period had already sold out.
Reporters recently learned from tourism agencies that most domestic travel routes this Spring Festival have seen average price increases of around 10%, with some seasonal hikes ranging from 30% to 50%. For example, a 4-day comfortable private tour from Shanghai to Guilin + Li River foreign passenger ship + Yangshuo + Yanshan + Elephant Trunk Hill is priced at 3,200 yuan during the Spring Festival. Yunnan’s Kunming-Dali-Lijiang comfortable tour is priced at over 3,000 yuan, making it a relatively cost-effective group product for the Spring Festival golden week. To attract tourists, many travel agency and online travel site routes offer advance booking discounts of several hundred yuan, usually requiring booking 20–30 days in advance.
In addition to early booking, traveling off-peak is also a very cost-effective choice. After the New Year holiday, prices for popular destinations see a slight drop. Currently, the most concentrated New Year’s holiday island vacation routes have seen about a 10% price reduction, but as the Spring Festival approaches, outbound travel prices will surge in early February, making the period between New Year’s and Spring Festival the best time for off-peak travel. Reporters found on the Caissa Travel website that current Taiwan travel prices start as low as 4,499 yuan, but will rise to 6,899 yuan in February, peaking at 8,199 yuan. A 7-day Bangkok-Pattaya trip currently costs around 6,000 yuan, rising to over 8,000 yuan in February.
Generally, route prices begin to rise in early February, with maximum increases reaching around 40%. During the peak of reverse-season travel, when the market trend is generally upward, travelers should be highly vigilant about "unusually cheap" deals. The National Tourism Administration recently issued its first 2013 travel warning case, involving a scam orchestrated under the fictitious name of the "China Shenzhen International Tourism Group," which promoted a fraudulent "buy home appliances and get a HK$3,980 4-day 3-night Hong Kong-Macau twin-tour VIP voucher" promotion.