The popularity of travel during this year's May Day holiday can be seen from the booming pre-sale stage of train tickets. On April 16th, the train tickets for the day before the May Day holiday (April 30th) officially went on sale, and many users flocked to the 12306 platform to buy tickets. For a while, many netizens reported on social media platforms that the system was experiencing lag and delayed response, which indirectly reflects the popularity of the "May Day" Golden Week tourism market. On the morning of April 16th, the official Weibo account of China Railway announced that on April 16th, the 12306 railway system began selling tickets for April 30th. At 9:00 am, the system experienced a sudden increase in traffic and a busy warning. Some users experienced a brief delay when logging in to the 12306 mobile app. After emergency handling, the situation has been basically alleviated. During this period, the 12306 website operated normally and users can purchase tickets smoothly. The head of the Passenger Transport Department of China Railway Group stated that during this year's May Day holiday, passengers have a strong desire to visit relatives, travel, go for outings, etc. It is expected that railway passenger flow will show a good growth trend. According to data from Qunar platform, during the May Day holiday, the difficulty of competing for tickets on popular train routes is no less than during the Spring Festival travel rush. Among them, there is a high demand for passenger flow from the northern region to destinations such as the Yangtze River Delta, the two lakes, and Sichuan Chongqing, as well as from many parts of the Yangtze River Delta to destinations such as Beijing, Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Changsha, and Qingdao. Ticket sources for routes such as Beijing to Wuhan, Beijing to Zhengzhou and Luoyang, Shanghai to Fuzhou, and Shanghai to Changsha are also tight. China Railway Group stated that during the May Day holiday, the railway department will scientifically and accurately arrange transportation capacity, coordinate the use of lines and equipment resources, and plan to operate more than 12000 passenger trains per day. The railway department will also make full use of the 12306 railway ticketing big data to dynamically track passenger flow operations. By adding temporary passenger trains, reconnecting high-speed trains, operating night trains, and adding vehicles, the transportation capacity will be accurately deployed in popular sections and time periods. With the sound of the "assembly number" for train ticket sales, domestic and international air ticket bookings have also entered the peak stage of booking. Data from multiple online travel platforms shows that during the May Day holiday, ticket prices for popular routes have shown varying degrees of increase. According to data from Tongcheng Network Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Tongcheng Travel"), the price of international air tickets is expected to show an upward trend from the week before the May Day holiday, reaching its peak on April 30 and May 1, and there is still room for a slight increase after hitting bottom on May 3. Domestic airfare prices are expected to start rising on April 28th, with peak prices occurring on the day before the holiday (April 30th) and the last day of the holiday (May 5th). From the perspective of 'May Day' product bookings, short-term destinations for outbound travel have become the first choice for travel, with Japan and the United Arab Emirates becoming the two most popular travel directions. From the trend of registration, for long-term tourism products during the May Day holiday, tourists will leave a booking period of 2 months or even longer Li Mengran, the media public relations manager of Zhongxin Tourism Group Co., Ltd., said. The person in charge of Tongcheng Travel told reporters that during this year's May Day holiday, the demand for mass tourism represented by non first tier city users will continue to promote the vigorous development of the holiday economy. The May Day holiday market will present the characteristics of strong supply and demand, and a trend of high-quality leisure vacation. Overall, during the May Day holiday, the transportation and travel sectors such as railways and aviation have seen a surge in popularity, with strong demand for domestic and international tourism. Short term destinations for outbound travel are highly favored, and new tourism models such as deep tourism and vacation tourism have emerged. Zhao Huanyan, Chief Knowledge Officer of Huamei Hotel Consulting Agency and Senior Economist in the Tourism and Hotel Industry, stated that with the joint efforts of various positive factors, from the instantaneous surge in railway system traffic to the fluctuation of cross-border airline prices, from the release of travel demand from non first tier cities to the continuous strengthening of cultural and tourism policies, it is expected that the market heat during the May Day holiday in 2025 will reach a historic high, injecting new vitality into economic growth and consumption upgrading. (New Society)