Record number of Chinese to travel over Labour Day break, but stick close to home

A record-breaking wave of Chinese tourists will hit the road for the Labour Day break, and with borders still shut many will be travelling domestically, to more remote locations and for longer, giving China's economy a powerful short-term boost. The holiday will be China's first long break in largely COVID-free conditions, and will unleash months of pent-up yearning for travel. Millions had missed the chance to go out earlier this year during the long Lunar New Year break due to a domestic coronavirus outbreak. Up to 200m trips will be made by tourists domestically, exceeding the 195m in 2019 before COVID-19, according to data from online travel giant Trip.com Group, setting a new all-time high for the holiday. That's in stark contrast to the rest of the world where many countries are still struggling to bring the virus under control, let alone open up domestic or even international travel. "This May Day holiday will see greater enthusiasm for long-distance travel across provinces in mainland China," Trip.com said. Mass vaccination in China's biggest cities has also boosted confidence to travel. Nie Wen, an economist at Hwabao Trust, told Reuters 300 million travellers can be expected, including tourists and people who had been unable to visit family before, equal to the population of the United States. Some tourists are even taking extra days off from work to turn the May 1-5 holiday into a nine-day break, with the aim of visiting far-flung domestic locations as substitutes for COVID-hit destinations abroad, according to tour agents.<br/>