Remote work boosts off-peak domestic travel
China DailyPeople traveling south for warmer weather hold a concert in Sanya, Hainan province, in October 2023. This winter, the number of bookings for hotels in southern China with stays of more than one month in length has doubled year-on-year, according to Qunar, a Beijing-based online travel agency. "Elderly people who live in northern regions like to go to warmer places for winter every year, and then return to the north after the weather warms up," said Cai Muzi, a Qunar researcher. Counties in the south such as Yunnan province, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, Fujian province and Hainan are more popular, with bookings for long-term hotel stays of more than one month increasing threefold year-on-year, Qunar found. Despite the rapidly growing number of young flexible remote workers heading to warmer climes, elderly travelers still constitute the majority of off-peak travelers.