4.268 million people! On May 1, the number of passengers sent by the Yangtze River Delta Railway hit a new record high in a single-day high, less than a month after the previous "single-day peak" (April 4).
There are many options for cross-provincial medium and long-distance travel during the May Day holiday, among which the travel demand within 1,500 kilometers has been further released. On May 1, the Yangtze River Delta Railway Department, based on the launch of the peak operation map, increased capacity in both popular tourist cities in the Yangtze River Delta region such as Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Hefei, Yangzhou, Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou, or medium and long-distance routes such as Beijing, Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Nanchang, and Changsha. On the same day, 469 passenger trains were added and 424 EMU trains were organized to reconnect and run to meet passenger needs.
From the travel "big data", we can see that the holiday economy is constantly heating up. If you analyze the special tourism products behind these data carefully, you can find that there are the contributions of cross-border linkage marketing to stimulate consumer enthusiasm.
In order to attract tourists, many cities conduct joint marketing with the railway department. For example, during the May Day holiday, Wujiang, Suzhou launched a high-speed rail ticket to arrive at high-speed rail stations in Wujiang within 7 days, and can enjoy tickets, shopping, accommodation and food discounts in Lili Ancient Town, ushering in a wave of tourism. During the May Day holiday, Lili Ancient Town is expected to receive 84,900 visitors, an estimated year-on-year increase of 5.2%. From May 1 to 4, some homestays were full, with an average booking rate increasing by 28.6% year-on-year.
In addition to tourist attractions, cruise ships are also linked to railways. As the cruise economy heats up, there are endless tourists taking the high-speed rail to Shanghai to start cruise sea vacations, and foreign tourists arriving in Shanghai by cruise ships have also taken the high-speed rail to experience the unique charm of speeding China.
On April 30, at the Shanghai Cruise Cultural Tourism Festival press conference, Baoshan launched the "Cruise + High-speed Railway" port-city interconnection project, planning to further deeply activate tourism resources in the Yangtze River Delta region, take high-speed railways as the key link, build a wide-coverage four-hour high-speed railway circle, and achieve seamless connection with Shanghai Wusongkou International Cruise Port.
The creativity of cultural tourism to "hold hands" on transportation will also "bring the museum to the sky". On April 30, the Shanghai Museum and China Eastern Airlines Group Co., Ltd. jointly released the wide-sports painted aircraft "Shangbo" with the theme of ancient Chinese art, adding a new experience of "Air Museum" to passengers traveling on holidays. The luggage rack, small table board, seat head cushion and other positions inside the cabin of the "Shangbo" were selected to present more than 30 bronze ware patterns in the Shangbo Museum, and were equipped with cultural relics descriptions and special patterns, making passengers feel like they were in a special exhibition of ancient Chinese bronze art in the sky.
Better creativity and better services can lead to more popular consumption. On May 2, the 2025 International Consumption Season and the 6th Shanghai "Fifth Five Shopping Festival" were launched. Shanghai Pudong Airport, as a "air port", strives to create the "first stop" for Shanghai's wonderful consumption. As the link between airlines and merchants, the airport links in-flight consumption with on-flight Wi-Fi usage vouchers, upgrade vouchers, VIP room experience vouchers, cultural and creative gifts, etc., to achieve mutual driving of airport consumption and enrich the passenger experience. (Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporter Jia Yuankun)
