Chinese travellers book Spring Festival break

BEIJING Advanced bookings for train tickets during China’s 2017 Spring Festival travel rush opened, Thursday, according to online media, Global Times with with millions of travellers vying to buy rail tickets.

This year, the pre-booking period for Spring Festival train rides has shortened from 60 days as set in 2016 to 30 days before the start of the rush, which lasts from 13 January to 21 February, chinanews.com reported on Wednesday.

Forecasts suggests a record 3 billion trips will be made during this year’s mass migration, up 2.2% year-on-year, according to a statement from the nation’s transport authorities, 29 November, the Xinhua News Agency reported earlier in the month.

The forecast noted that the total trips would include 2.52 billion by road, 360 million by train and 58.3 million by air.

High-speed train rides will account for almost 40% of this year’s migration trips.

During the 2016 Spring Festival travel rush, 64.6% of rail travellers booked their tickets online with 39% booked via mobile apps, according to Xinhua.

Chinese passengers made a record of 400 million trips during the week of the 2016 Spring Festival holiday.

sourced:ttrweekly.com