Qunar Big Data: May Day Holiday Sees Record-Breaking Travel on Opening Day

May Day Opening Day Travel Data Explodes Across the Board

On May 1, Qunar Travel released its big data report for the first day of the May Day holiday. The data shows that flight passenger volume and hotel check-ins on May 1 both hit peak levels, with multiple core metrics setting new records — reflecting the strong resilience and structural shifts in China's tourism consumption market.

Notably, the big data and AI-powered recommendation systems behind the Qunar Travel platform are now deeply embedded in users' travel decision-making chains — from destination discovery and itinerary planning to price prediction. Data-driven intelligent services are reshaping the consumption patterns of holiday tourism.

Rise of 'Hidden Gem Cities': Multi-City Hopping Orders Up 120%

In terms of traveler distribution, large and small cities are showing a trend of "mutual attraction." A wave of previously lesser-known "hidden gem cities" have outpaced provincial capitals in booking growth, indicating travelers' increasingly strong pursuit of differentiated, immersive experiences.

Even more striking is the explosion of the "multi-city hopping" model — related orders grew 120% year-over-year. More and more travelers are no longer satisfied with a single destination. Instead, they are leveraging the platform's intelligent itinerary planning features to string together multiple adjacent small cities into personalized routes. Behind this trend lies AI recommendation algorithms' precise capture of user preferences and efficient integration of cross-city transportation and accommodation resources.

In popular cities, the average length of stay reached 2.6 days, indicating that "deep travel" is replacing "check-in tourism" as the mainstream choice.

Group Travel and Self-Driving Road Trips Surge in Parallel

The data also reveals two significant shifts in travel modes:

Group trips with family and friends are trending. Orders where one person books multiple rooms doubled on the platform, reflecting the growing social dimension of family and friend group travel. Qunar Travel's smart group booking and bundled reservation features have effectively reduced the decision-making and coordination costs of multi-person trips.

New energy vehicle (NEV) road trips are booming. Domestic self-driving travel bookings grew nearly 60% overall, with NEV rentals nearly tripling year-over-year. As charging infrastructure accelerates its rollout across tourist cities and highway corridors, NEVs are evolving from urban commuting tools into long-distance travel companions.

'Colorwalk' Ignites New Trends as Cultural Tourism Consumption Diversifies

In terms of destination activities, concerts, theme parks, and natural scenic areas continue to draw massive crowds. Notably, the emerging trend of "colorwalk" (urban color walks) has driven related attraction popularity to surge over five-fold, becoming a new form of holiday socializing for younger demographics.

The rapid rise of these emerging consumption scenarios is inseparable from the platform's big data capabilities in capturing trends and delivering precise recommendations. Through real-time popularity monitoring and intelligent content distribution, Qunar Travel helps users discover new experiences as soon as they emerge, while also providing scenic spots and merchants with new channels for traffic growth.

Inbound and Outbound Tourism Both Booming: Chinese Travelers Check Into Hotels in Nearly 1,500 Cities Worldwide

The international tourism market also delivered impressive results. Platform data shows that Chinese travelers' footprints now span hotels in nearly 1,500 cities worldwide, with the breadth and depth of outbound tourism continuing to expand.

Meanwhile, inbound tourism is also experiencing robust growth. The number of foreign tourists flying to Guangzhou, Chengdu, Wuhan, Beijing, Changsha, and Hohhot all doubled. This "two-way boom" benefits from the continued advancement of visa facilitation policies and is closely linked to the platform's multilingual service capabilities and optimized cross-border payment experiences.

Data Intelligence Driving Tourism Industry Upgrades

Based on Qunar Travel's May Day big data release, AI and big data technologies have become deeply integrated into every segment of the tourism industry. From intelligent recommendations, itinerary planning, and price prediction on the consumer side, to dynamic pricing, inventory management, and trend forecasting on the supply side, data intelligence is becoming a core competitive advantage for travel platforms.

As new consumption models such as "hidden gem city-hopping," "NEV road trips," and "colorwalk" continue to emerge, the long-tail demand in the tourism market is being further activated. In the future, AI-driven platforms capable of precisely matching supply with demand and efficiently integrating resources will hold an even greater advantage in this wave of tourism consumption upgrades.