
Last week, the first autumn school holiday in Sichuan was a big success. It was a short holiday, but it brought many changes to the travel market.
The autumn school holiday started on November 12, combining 3 days of official holiday with the weekend to form a “mini-vacation”. As soon as the vacation began, people’s wish for travel surged. Many families chose to travel, making plane tickets, hotel rooms and scenic spot tickets hard to book. For example, flights from Chengdu to Sanya on the first day of the vacation were all sold out in the morning. Data from travel platforms showed that the number of plane tickets leaving from Chengdu increased by 22% compared with the previous week. Popular destinations for travelers departing from Chengdu included Beijing, Sanya, Xishuangbanna, Kunming and Lhasa.
Family trips, especially parent-child tours, were the main form of travel during the vacation. Many families chose outdoor autumn appreciation, visits to key museums and theme parks. To attract more parent-child visitors, Dujiangyan Scenic Area launched a special activity, offering free tickets to students under 18 all over the world and designing interesting research routes. The total number of tourists in three days increased by 116% year-on-year. What’s more, museums were even more popular as “mobile classrooms” for students to learn outside school. Less than an hour after Chengdu Museum opened, a long queue formed in front of the youth exhibition hall. The museum added themed educational activities to let children experience history and culture personally.