Destinations farther afield are enjoying greater popularity among Chinese travellers for the May Day holiday this year, revealed Hotelbeds.
According to booking data from the Hotelbeds platform for this year’s four-day International Labour Day holiday period starting on Wednesday, 10 of the top 30 international destinations for Chinese travellers during International Labour Day in 2019 are non-Asian destinations, up from only three last year.
Paris and London are listed in the top 30 destinations in ninth and 15th places respectively, with Paris last year coming in at number 23 and London not ranking at all in the top 30.
Further down the top 30 ranking, Paris and London are followed by other non-Asian destinations such as Prague (22nd), Barcelona (23rd), Dubai (24th), Honolulu (26th), Madrid (27th), New York (28th), Melbourne (29th) and Rome (30th).
This year’s jump in the number of non-Asian destinations, said Hotelbeds, could in part be explained by the fact that this year Chinese citizens will enjoy an extra day of holiday during International Labour Day, taking the break to four days total.
However this year’s extra day was only announced recently by the Chinese state on March 22 when it announced a reshuffling of the non-working days for the Labour Day Holiday.
This has resulted in a surge of extra accommodation bookings – with Hotelbeds’ data showing a year-on-year increase of around 75 per cent in the weeks following the government’s surprise announcement.
