Taking advantage of their annual leave to travel a few days before the Spring Festival or traveling after the Spring Festival, many routes have decreased by 30% to 60%, and off-peak travelers can save thousands of yuan per person. Reporters recently learned from the main travel agencies in Shanghai that this year during the Spring Festival, half of the tourists chose to travel off-peak, which is significantly higher than in previous years. Especially in popular routes with high price increases such as Sanya, Hong Kong, and Lijiang, the situation where there was concentrated travel during the first half of the Spring Festival Golden Week has been reversed.
Relevant personnel from the tourism business of Ctrip Travel Network said that in the past, the peak period for tourists to depart was generally from New Year's Day to the fourth day of the first lunar month. Judging from the booking departure situations of independent travel and group tours for this year’s Spring Festival on Ctrip, among tourists whose itineraries involve the Spring Festival holiday, about half have avoided this peak period, and the proportion is even higher for some popular routes. For example, two-thirds of those on the Sanya route chose to travel off-peak, and around January 30th, the peak of tourism arrived. The number of people on January 31st was the highest, about twice as much as on New Year's Day, and February 8th was another departure peak. In Hong Kong and Lijiang routes, the proportion of off-peak travel during the Spring Festival also exceeded half. For instance, the number of customers departing for Hong Kong independent travel on January 31st was significantly higher than the highest value during the Spring Festival.
Reporters found through inquiries on Ctrip Travel Network that for a 4-day independent trip to Sanya from Shanghai staying at a five-star luxury hotel, the starting price for departures from New Year's Day to the third day of the first lunar month exceeded 7000 yuan, but after the fourth day, it dropped to more than 4000 yuan. After Valentine's Day on February 14th, it further dropped to over 2000 yuan, only one-third of the peak Spring Festival price. Similar situations also existed for routes to Xiamen, Yunnan, and Sichuan.