As Spring Festival nears, Tourism market heats up

The Spring Festival falls on the 1st day of the 1st lunar month, often one month later than the Gregorian calendar. It originated in the Shang Dynasty from the people's sacrifice to gods and ancestors at the end of an old year and the beginning of a new one. This is the most important festival for the Chinese people and is when all family members get together, just like Christmas in other parts of the world. All people living away from home go back, becoming the busiest time for transportation systems of about half a month from the Spring Festival. Airports, railway stations and long-distance bus stations are crowded with home returnees.
However, the excitement of the traditional Spring Festival is coming and anticipation is building for the seven-day holiday as many in China begin to finalize their holiday plans. An online study shows that about 60 percent of netizens plan to spend the holiday traveling, according to Yangtze Evening News.

The Spring Festival starts every year in the early days of the 12th lunar month and last till the mid 1st lunar month of the next year. Many customs accompany the Festival like cooking special dishes on particular days, decorating clean rooms, welcoming the new year to mention but a few. Some customs are still followed today, but others have faded out. Also the Chinese government stipulates people have seven days off for the Chinese Lunar New Year since all the 56 ethnic groups celebrate the festive days and the Minorities celebrate their Spring Festival almost the same day as the Han people, and they have different customs. 

The study was released by a famous domestic online travel agency through online questionnaires. From the effective updated questionnaires, 61 percent of Netizens said they planned to take travels during the Spring Festival. Among domestic cities, Sanya topped the list, followed by Lijiang, Xiamen and Harbin as netizens' top four favorite traveling destinations. In addition, cities such as Beijing, Guilin, Xi'an and Chengdu are also very popular.
Much like the hot domestic tourism market, outbound tourism is also promising this year. Nearly half of those netizens who have plans to travel want to go abroad for vacation. Of the cities outside of China's mainland, Hong Kong got the most votes, followed by Japan, Maldives, Thailand, Australia, Bali, Singapore and some European countries. In addition, the study showed that tourists' preferences now include more diverse locals, such as Egypt, Dubai, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania South Africa, Canada and many others. Have the same interest of travel as that of the Chinese during the Chinese traditional festival.