TONGCHENGTRAVEL: Next year's long holidays will be even longer with fewer days off, leading to a threefold increase in flight ticket searches for Spring Festival.

On November 12, the General Office of the State Council released a notice regarding the holiday arrangements for 2025. According to the revised "National Annual Holidays and Commemorative Days Holiday Arrangement Method" in November 2024, all citizens will have 2 additional days of holidays starting from January 1, 2025, with 1 extra day for both the Spring Festival and Labor Day. This means that in 2025, the Spring Festival will have an 8-day holiday, while Labour Day will only require 1 day off. Following the announcement, within half an hour, TONGCHENGTRAVEL (00780) data showed that the search volume for flights during the Spring Festival holiday period had more than tripled compared to the same time the previous day and continued to rise. In addition, some tourists have already started searching for outbound flights for the "National Day" holiday. The 2025 Spring Festival holiday will start from the New Year's Eve on January 28 and end on the seventh day of the Lunar New Year on February 4, with many tourists starting to plan their long holiday arrangements. TONGCHENGTRAVEL data shows that the day before New Year's Eve and the last day of the holiday are the peak travel periods. Many tourists also choose to depart from the third to the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, after reuniting with their families, to enjoy a trip in the second half of the holiday. TONGCHENG research institute believes that the 2025 holiday arrangement essentially added 2 days to the statutory holidays, increasing the supply of public holidays. Working professionals can more conveniently piece together longer holidays with the public holidays, to some extent promoting the formation of a new pattern of staggered holiday travel. The new holiday arrangement gives policy suggestions for the number of days off before and after the holiday (principally not exceeding 6 days), and effectively reduces the number of days off before and after the "Labour Day" and Spring Festival holidays, in response to the public's calls to reduce days off around holidays. The increase in public holidays and the reduction of days off can create more flexible "piecing together holiday" choices for everyone. The flexible connection between paid leave and public holidays will further stimulate the public's enthusiasm for leisure and vacation consumption.