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The latest edition of the Traveller Insights Series, produced exclusively for DFNI by travel retail data experts Air4casts, focuses on some of the domestic Lunar New Year hotspots in China. All data comes from the Air4casts China Domestic platform.
Although an unprecedented 9 billion domestic trips are expected by the Chinese government over the extended 40-day Lunar New Year travel period, the vast majority of these will be by car. This year the holiday season runs from 14 January to 22 February following efforts by the authorities to encourage tourism. Some 80% of domestic journeys are forecast to be by car with rail travel accounting for around 510 million passengers and domestic air travel 90 million.
Regional airports top the New Year growth league
For those travelling by air during the holiday the fastest growing domestic airports are in a wide range of Tier 2 cities across the country as big city workers head home.
Six of the top 10 rapid growth departure terminals are in Tier 2 cities this year and they include both major Hainan Island airports where the focus is clearly on vacation travel.
Similarly, the appearance of Xishuangbanna Gasa airport in Jinghong relates to the large Chinese package tour business handled by that airport.
Winter sports destinations have been heavily promoted by the Chinese government this Chinese New Year and airports like Urumqi in Xinjiang or Lanzhou in Gansu province have also appeared in the list of fastest growing domestic airports for the Spring Festival period.
Tier 1 Wuhan and Beijing Daxing airports should offer excellent prospects for departure shopping and dining opportunities.
Hainan Island remains an attractive destination
While sales levels on the island have certainly fallen over recent months Hainan remains a popular destination this year for those taking a break over the holiday period. This week's passenger numbers at the island's biggest airport, Haikou Meilan, hit a 2025 high at 700 thousand. Next week's numbers are forecast to be higher again during the peak last minute getaway window.
Taking next week in the immediate run-up to the official New Year date, Guangzhou is the top feeder airport into Haikou Meilan airport this New Year while Beijing Capital airport leads for those heading to Sanya.
Beijing Daxing and Shanghai Pudong airports also feature prominently in Sanya's top inbound list and these airports tend to provide a good mix of higher net worth travellers. Despite its prominence as ski resort chilly Harbin airport makes it into the top five inbound airports to Hainan Island next week as residents there seek out a warm sunshine break over New Year.
Just as in the wider Chinese domestic market however most visitors to Hainan Island over the New Year will arrive by car or high-speed rail. Travel to the island by air during the holiday will account for under a third of all tourist arrivals.
Inbound international tourism rapidly increasing
One of the strongest features of this year’s Spring Festival is the revival of inbound foreign tourists from a wide range of countries, in part owing to China’s recent expansion of its visa-free policy.
Inbound visitor numbers from South Korea, Thailand, Singapore and Japan have all increased sharply since last year and these nationalities look set to join tourists from Hong Kong next week as the dominant visiting overseas nationalities to the mainland.
Added to the traditional foreign tourist destinations within China such as the Forbidden City and the Great Wall of China are those famous Chinese ski resorts with foreign bookings for Chinese ski holidays significantly on the increase this New Year. On a smaller scale but popular too are foreign bookings to Macau over the holiday period with South Korean visitors to Macau's luxury hotels and casinos up some 40% points over 2024.
