Hotel bookings for the upcoming Dragon Boat Festival holiday have surged ahead of the long weekend, with travelers taking advantage of lower airfares and strong interest in traditional cultural activities, online travel platform Qunar said on Thursday.
Bookings for hotel stays on Thursday were more than 40 percent higher than the previous day, according to Qunar data.
The three-day holiday — which starts on Friday without additional make-up workdays — has boosted demand for short-distance trips around major cities, with many train tickets on popular routes from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen in Guangdong province already sold out.
Traditional folk culture remains a major draw for travelers. Searches related to Dragon Boat Festival themes — including dragon boat races and sticky rice dumplings, also known as zongzi — more than tripled from a month earlier, Qunar said.
The platform said destinations hosting dragon boat events and cultural activities have seen strong spikes in booking, particularly in southern provinces such as Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi.
