Huatai Securities: "Spring Break + Qingming" holiday boosts travel demand, inbound tourism continues to grow rapidly

**Rui Finance Yan Minghui ** Recently, a research note from Huatai Securities said that the combination of the spring holiday and the Qingming Festival led to a concentrated release of residents’ travel demand. Residents’ travel radius expanded markedly year over year, with self-drive travel playing a leading role. In the 1 day before the Qingming Festival holiday through the 2nd day of the holiday, total inter-regional passenger movements across the country increased by 9.7%/3.2% versus the same periods in 2024/2025.

Data from the Ministry of Transport shows that cumulative personnel movements by rail, waterways, highways, and civil aviation increased year over year by 10.4%/17.5%/2.6%/4.1%, respectively. The number of non-commercial small passenger car trips on expressways and ordinary national and provincial roads grew 2.8% year over year, accounting for more than 80% of total passenger movements. Car rentals for self-drive travel, as an important way to travel for spring outings, have also continued to rise structurally: data from Shenzhou Car Rental shows that during this year’s Qingming Festival holiday, the number of rental bookings increased by nearly 1x year over year, and cross-city rental booking volume rose by nearly 2.5x year over year.

Flight Butler data shows that during the Qingming Festival holiday, the average domestic airfare price increased 11.7% year over year.

Relevant companies: Huatai Securities sh601688