Chongqing - With Children's Day and summer vacation coming, the topic of family trips has gone viral, igniting a frenzy of searches on various online travel platforms.
According to reports from integrated travel service providers such as Ctrip and Fliggy, the term "family trip" became one of the most sought-after keywords on May 30, with Chongqing drawing significant attention and emerging as a popular destination alongside Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Chengdu.
With Children's Day and summer vacation just around the corner, the topic of family trips has gone viral, igniting a frenzy of searches on various online travel platforms. (Photo/Qiu Jinyi)
Flourishing family trips
According to the insight into the family trip trend released by Ctrip, the domestic market of family trips was becoming increasingly popular in the first half of this year. The data showed that the number of domestic family travel orders during this period increased 1.5 times compared to last year, and the number of parent-child travel increased 15% compared to 2019.
Meanwhile, the orders of relevant travel programs rose a lot. For instance, Ctrip posted 90% year-on-year growth in the number of orders of the package tours labeled with "select for family trips" in the first half of 2023 and 75% year-on-year growth in that of the study tour programs. The latest data from Flying Pig showed that the turnover of accommodation packages increased by over 98% compared to last year on the first day of the "618 promotion". According to Fliggy, the most popular new packages include theme park tours, intangible cultural heritage experience tours, and photo-shooting tours, combining entertainment, individuality, and accommodation.
Besides, there are many trendy programs for family tours. As Ctrip introduced, the program theming on panda protection allows tourists to visit Huahua, a popular panda. The spring sowing tour leads travelers to dig bamboo shoots, transplant rice seedlings, and grow trees. The mountain climbing tour allows parents and children to temper their will.
More and more families travel as private groups or individual groups or go for a flexible package tour. On the platform of Ctrip, in the first half of 2023, the number of orders of private group tours increased by 7.8 times compared to last year. About 40% of consumers bring their kids together. Also, the order volume of triple rooms increased by 117% compared to the previous year and 46% compared to 2019. The order volume of scenic spot tickets rose by 2.8 times, among which theme parks, zoos, museums, mountains, and aquariums became necessary for family trips.
Weekday travel trends
Despite Children's Day falling on a weekday, many families still choose to embark on short-distance journeys to celebrate the festival with their children. The volume of bookings for local short-distance tours has surged by 142% compared to last year.
Chongqing, renowned as a popular tourist city, has captured the attention not only of the Z generation but also families with children. Ctrip recently unveiled a list of the top 15 destinations for family tours, which includes Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Chongqing, Xi'an, Wuhan, Sanya, Nanjing, Changsha, Kunming, Tianjin, and Zhengzhou.
（Yang Yuanchun, as an intern, also contributed to the report.)