An estimated 1.525 billion journeys, or an average of 305 million per day, were made during the recently concluded May Day holiday, which ran from May 1 to 5. 

Older people were a major constituent of travelers during the five-day break, with the two main categories of travel by volume being group travel by senior citizens and family travel by children, parents and grandparents together. A May 5 report released by Tongcheng Travel, a leading travel platform in China, based on big data from its online platform revealed bookings for family-friendly hotel rooms in popular tourist cities increased nearly 50 percent from last year's May Day holiday, and bookings for family-friendly destinations such as theme parks, museums, zoos and aquariums increased nearly 100 percent.

The "ticket stub economy," a model in which ticket stubs from cultural, sporting or entertainment events can be used as vouchers for discounts for other events, venues and products, became particularly prominent during the holiday. Tickets for concerts and music festivals were interconnected with local commercial districts, hotels, restaurants and retail outlets, driving consumption across the entire urban consumption chain. Travel and consumption were further supported during the holiday by China's well-developed high-speed railway and highway networks, along with highly efficient public services.

Figures from Tongcheng Travel show a significant increase in both the number of Hong Kong residents traveling to the mainland and that of mainland tourists visiting Hong Kong. The number of overseas tourists making transfers through Hong Kong to mainland holiday destinations, including Sanya in Hainan Province, Chengdu in Sichuan Province, Changsha in Hunan Province and Wuhan in Hubei Province, increased significantly from the previous year. Popular outbound travel destinations for mainland tourists included Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Republic of Korea, Viet Nam and Singapore. In addition, bookings for long-haul outbound travel destinations such as Britain, Denmark, Italy and Spain all increased more than 100 percent year on year.

The booming consumption during the May Day holiday demonstrated the strong potential of China's huge market and the ongoing recovery of consumer confidence. The fact that people are willing to go out and spend is essentially a positive recognition of the employment situation, income expectations and the stability of living standards.