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According to Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea,

Chinese tourists have chosen Seoul as their top destination for their upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays. With an estimated 21 million Chinese travelers expected to fly during the eight-day holiday, airfares for domestic flights within China and flights to Seoul (Incheon and Gimpo International Airports) have more than doubled in just one week.

According to a report by Bloomberg on Sunday (local time), the Chinese travel market is expected to regain momentum during the holidays, which run from September 29 to October 6. “More than 21 million passengers will travel by air during the holiday,” Jin Junhao, a deputy director at the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said at a recent briefing in Beijing. More than 14,000 domestic flights per day will be operated during the holiday, according to Chinese authorities. Demand for overseas travel has also surged with the resumption of Chinese group tours to South Korea and Japan, with Chinese flight booking service provider Umetrip saying that it has nearly 1 million bookings for international routes during the holiday period.

According to Chinese aviation data company Flight Master, the Shanghai-Seoul route topped the list of preferred international flights. Shanghai-Tokyo, Beijing-Tokyo, and Hangzhou-Osaka ranked second through fourth respectively, with Beijing-Seoul taking the fifth spot. Apart from Korea and Japan, Singapore and Bangkok are also popular destinations.

With the influx of travelers, airfares have more than doubled, according to the Bloomberg report. For example, economy class fares on the Beijing-Chengdu route recently hit 1,800 yuan (about $ 246.18), up 2.6 times from 680 yuan on September 22, and prices for international flights have also doubled.

By Jin Young-tae and Yoon Yeon-hae

Copyrights Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea. All Rights Reserved.

Source: Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea (September 26, 2023)