beijing a recordbreaking 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 chinas economy a powerful shortterm boost the holiday will be chinas first long break in largely covidfree conditions and will unleash months of pentup 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 200 million trips will be made by tourists domestically exceeding the 195 million in 2019 before covid19 according to data from online travel giant tripcom group setting a new alltime high for the holiday thats 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 longdistance travel across provinces in mainland china tripcom told reuters mass vaccination in chinas 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 15 holiday into a nineday break with the aim of visiting farflung domestic locations as substitutes for covidhit destinations abroad according to tour agents before the pandemic the labour day holiday was a peak period for international trips with thailand japan and singapore the hottest destinations but strict quarantine measures and reduced flights have roadblocked chinese travellers for over a year james liang cofounder and executive chairman of tripcom group told reuters that domestic destinations that can replace overseas resorts are all popular for example sanya is a substitute to thailand and xinjiang and tibet are substitutes to crossborder longdistance trips he said hotel room rates have jumped and air fares have soared even as more flights are being added flights to and from the southern resort island of hainan will be 22 higher than the 2019 holiday according to hainan airlines li hua operator of a boutique guesthouse in dali known for its laidback atmosphere and gorgeous yunnan landscape said all his 16 rooms had been booked we increased room rates by 50 li said half of the total profit we made during the week will be spent on staff as their bonus according to li local luxury guesthouses have all raised prices due to strong demand hotels that charge more than 3000 yuan 464 per night are the most popular he said the situation is similar in tibet every one of our hotels is fully booked for the holiday said cai jinghui chief strategy officer of songtsam group a luxury boutique chain with 11 properties car rental companies are doing a roaring business with bookings up