HANGZHOU, 8 MAY 2025: Fliggy, an online travel platform and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alibaba Group, has released insights into the 2025 Labour Day holiday travel trends, indicating a solid year-on-year (YoY) rise in per capita travel expenditure.
This year, more travellers extended the standard five-day Labour Day holiday to 11 days by taking additional leave days. Fliggy’s data indicates a notable shift in return travel patterns, with peak return dates occurring later than the previous year, suggesting a marked increase in average trip duration.
Demand for comfort and customised experiences
Fliggy’s data highlights a growing consumer preference for comfort and tailored itineraries, with customised tour bookings soaring over 80% YoY. This trend is particularly notable in established tourism destinations such as Beijing, Tibet, Shaanxi, Xinjiang, and Sichuan, where bookings for related products surged by an average of over 300% compared to last year.
Small private group tours (5 to 10 people) were especially popular. Bookings for four to five-star hotels and luxury hotels through their flagship stores on Fliggy rose by over 20% compared to last year, building on a high base.
Road trips continue to gain popularity, with domestic car rentals up 35% YoY. Cities like Pu’er (Yunnan), Jinhua (Zhejiang), Datong (Shanxi), Yili (Xinjiang), and Taizhou (Zhejiang) saw an average increase of 100% YoY in car rental bookings. The platform has also seen rising bookings for nature hotspots and destinations within a one- to two-hour drive from megacities.
Megacities such as Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Nanjing, Chongqing, Wuhan, and Xi’an remain top choices. Meanwhile, off-the-beaten-path and long-haul destinations are gaining traction, with bookings for destinations of outstanding natural beauty such as Beitun (Xinjiang), Qamdo (Tibet), Golog (Qinghai), Nujiang (Yunnan), and Tunchang (Hainan) rising by an average of over 100% YoY.
Travellers increasingly prioritise diverse and engaging experiences, favouring activities such as island getaways, rainforest trekking, desert camel rides, stargazing camps, and tea-mountain tours. This holiday season also saw notable demand for crowd-avoidance strategies, relaxation-focused vacations, and deep cultural immersion.
Visa-friendly policies boost outbound travel
Driven by the trend of expanding holidays through additional days off, coupled with visa-friendly policies, outbound travel has seen a sharp rise in per capita bookings, signalling a preference for longer, more immersive trips. Outbound bookings for flights, hotels, and cruises surged, with cruise bookings alone up over 60% YoY.
Top outbound destinations include Japan, Hong Kong SAR, Thailand, South Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia and France. Emerging destinations such as Iceland, Hungary, Greece, Saudi Arabia, and Norway also saw rapid growth, with bookings all up over 170% YoY.
