Shanghai enjoys ‘staycation’ Spring Festival boom

SHINE | 07-Feb-2022 | By Hu Min

Shanghai recorded 10.98 million visits by tourists during the seven-day Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, reaping a tourism revenue of 17.7 billion yuan (US$2.78 billion). Under the “staycation” trend, hotels in the city witnessed an accommodation boom by local residents during the holiday, as their average occupancy rate hit 40 percent, up 5 percentage points from the same period last year, according to the Shanghai Administration of Culture and Tourism.

Nearly 500 cultural and tourism activities such as riddle guessing and lantern fairs were staged citywide, enabling residents to savor the traditional Chinese Spring Festival flavor, the administration said. City walks were a highlight during the holiday, allowing participants to experience the city’s diversified quality of life. Online exhibitions and performances were gaining popularity, and major online cultural and tourism activities held by the city’s cultural venues and tourist attractions attracted 3.27 million clicks in total.

Offline, various folk cultural activities such as Chinese zodiac exhibitions promised a festive flavor for visitors, the administration said. Parks across Shanghai recorded 3.87 million visits over the seven days, up 11.46 percent from the same period last year. Among these, city parks had 3.65 million visits, posing a rise of 13.76 percent, while countryside parks received 215,500, down 17 percent. The travel peak appeared on Saturday due to sunny weather, hitting 847,600, according to Shanghai Greenery and Public Sanitation Bureau. The newly opened Expo Culture Park recorded 80,700 visits through the holiday. The Shanghai Botanic Garden had 105,000, surging 98 percent from the same period last year, while the Century Park 113,000, growing 39 percent. A variety of activities such as flower exhibitions and folk culture activities were held at city parks during the holiday to enrich residents’ tour experiences. Strict COVID-19 prevention and control measures such as reservation, health monitoring and visitor number controls were taken to avoid gathering, the bureau said. Meanwhile, travel operators said the ongoing Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games has led to a boom in ice and snow tourism during the holiday.

Shanghai-based online travel operator Lvmama said ski resorts, hot springs, lantern fairs and hiking were some of the most popular tourism activities and venues during the holiday. An increasing number of people were exploring new fun tourism splendor in their home cities under the staycation trend, it said.

People born in the 1980s and 1990s were the majority of Spring Festival tourists, accounting for more than 60 percent of the total, according to Lvmama. Shanghai, Beijing, Wuxi, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Nanjing and Suzhou were among the top 10 tourist source markets during the holiday.

Because of the winter games, a surge of ticket bookings to attractions such as Xiling Snow Mountain in Chengdu and Vanke Shijinglong Ski Resort in Beijing had been witnessed, the travel operator said. Online travel review site Mafengwo said cities with rich ice and snow resources were the most popular destinations among travelers during the holiday. One-day tours was the top option under the staycation trend, with 70.8 percent travelers making one-day tour bookings in their home cities via the site. Beijing where the Olympic Winter Games is held was the most popular tourist destination during the holiday based on search results, according to Mafengwo. The search amount of key words related with the event like Olympic venues and Zhangjiakou competition area soared 400 percent from normal.

There has been a younger and more diversified trend of ice and snow tourism in China in recent years, according to a recent report released by China Tourism Academy and Mafengwo. In addition to skiing and ice-skating, some niche ice and snow sports activities such as snow field marathon, ice climbing, snow drifting and snowmobile crossing are also gaining popularity in China due to the Olympic Winter Games, the report revealed.