This Spring Festival holiday, homestay bookings by Chinese tourists might have more than doubled from a year ago, according to industry projections.
Southern city Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, has topped other Chinese cities in terms of bookings for shared accommodation, according to data from San Francisco-based Airbnb, a firm that provides online bookings for such homestay services.
The trend has driven up demand for short-term rental apartments, said Li Zhenni, chief brand officer of Chinese homestay booking platform Tujia.
The firm saw its shared bed-and-breakfast bookings surge about four times year-on-year during the holiday period, with coastal cities of Xiamen in Fujian province and Sanya in Hainan province attracting more tourists, thanks to their agreeable weather in winter and well-appointed shared lodges.
According to travel predictions for 2019 by Booking.com, a website for travelers, travel with experiences at its core was one of the major travel trends last year. And 2019 will extend the trend. For 60% of travelers, experiences are now valued higher than material possessions.
About 50 million units of homes across China are available, which can meet the requirements of travelers' online booking for short-term stays, said Li.
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