Family holidays on the rise over summer

Family domestic trips have risen during the two-month summer holiday starting July 1, with the total value of bookings surging more than four times that of last summer, according to an industry report.

The report, published recently by Chinese online travel agency Trip.com, said that 59 percent of people booking flights on its platform for the summer holidays intend to travel with their children, up 8 percentage points from the same period of 2019.

Of such travelers, parents born in the 1980s and children born in the 2010s comprised about 60 percent.

Shanghai was the most popular departure city for family trips, followed by Beijing and Chengdu in Sichuan province, according to data from Ctrip, a Chinese travel booking platform.

Island trips are a favorite among families in the summer, the report said, with nearly a quarter of them booking flights to coastal cities such as Sanya in Hainan province, Qingdao in Shandong province and Dalian in Liaoning province.

Families showed strong demand for night tours due to the searing summer temperature. As a result, some zoos, museums and parks have provided accommodation and nighttime activities such as camping and night markets.

Among the most favored scenic areas for family night tours were Shanghai Disney Resort, Haichang Ocean Park in Shanghai, and the Badaling section of the Great Wall in Beijing, the report said.

More than entertainment, parents want their children to acquire knowledge or skills while traveling, so study tours have gained huge popularity, the report said.