This year is the first Spring Festival travel period after the Hainan Free Trade Port closed customs operations. The benefits of the customs closure policy continue to be released, coupled with the expansion of the new tax-free policy, the popularity of winter tourism in Hainan continues to rise. What makes tourists miserable is the return journey. Today is the last day of the Spring Festival holiday. After checking multiple online travel platforms, we found that all direct economy class flights from Sanya to Beijing, Shanghai and other core cities are sold out. The remaining business class tickets are generally around 9,900 yuan - approaching the 10,000 yuan mark. Some connecting business class tickets are even as high as 18,950 yuan.


Text | "BUG" column Zhou Wenmeng

Someone on the social platform said bluntly, "Without 10,000 yuan, I wouldn't be able to come back from Sanya!"

According to the latest data released by "Haikou Release", since the Spring Festival Transport started on February 2, the flight volume and passenger throughput of the island's three major airports have hit new highs repeatedly, with a cumulative daily passenger throughput exceeding 200,000 for 15 days. Today, the island's three major airports are expected to carry out nearly 1,200 flights and handle about 232,000 passengers.


"Back to Beijing and Shanghai, sold out"

"It's expensive. It's really too expensive. I don't recommend coming during holidays. There are so many people. If it weren't for my parents (who are from the Northeast) who are recuperating in Sanya and I came here to accompany them, I might not have come." This is what Xiao Wang, a tourist who just returned from a vacation in Hainan, said about his Spring Festival trip to Hainan when communicating with the "BUG" column.

In his sharing, "the return journey is expensive" became his most highlighted feeling. According to his introduction, although he had traveled during off-peak hours and used a train ticket + flight for the outbound trip, he did not go directly back to Beijing for the return trip, but went to Guangxi for a layover. However, the round-trip fare also cost more than 7,000 yuan, and a trip was "really not cheap."

"Although I planned my trip in advance and bought the air tickets, when the trip was over, I still felt it was expensive." Xiao Wang said with emotion.

In fact, there are many people with similar ideas.

The "BUG" column inquired about a number of online travel platforms and found that on February 23 (the seventh day of the Lunar New Year), the last day of the Spring Festival, direct flights from Sanya to Beijing, Shanghai and other core cities were almost completely sold out in economy class during the core travel period. Only some night flights that landed at 2:00 were priced at more than 4,000 yuan, and business class fares for a large number of seats that still had seats were generally around 9,900 yuan. For some connecting flights in premium time periods on the booking platform, the price of business class is even as high as 18,950 yuan.


Prior to this, some users discovered early that even the cross-sea ferry tickets from Haikou to Zhanjiang Xuwen were sold out early, making it basically impossible to buy tickets temporarily.



This is the first Spring Festival after the Hainan Free Trade Port was closed and operational. Going to Hainan for vacation has become the idea of ​​​​most migrant workers.

According to the Hainan Provincial Department of Transportation (Provincial Spring Festival Transport Special Office), in the 19 days before this year’s Spring Festival, Hainan’s comprehensive transportation passenger volume accumulated 10.6819 million passengers, a year-on-year increase of 8.05%. Among them, a total of 6.2125 million passengers entered and exited the island, a year-on-year increase of 9.66%.

Behind the substantial increase in bookings, the price of air tickets has also increased. However, for most tourists, the shortage of aircraft and other air transport capacity caused by the surge in tourists has become a major worry that plagues them.

“Skyrocketing prices are the norm”

What are the reasons for the surge in the number of tourists and even air ticket prices in Hainan?

When communicating with the "BUG" column, Chen Jie, the vice president of Jinlv Group, said bluntly: "It is normal for return ticket prices to Hainan to skyrocket during the Spring Festival. The essential reason behind it is the imbalance of supply and demand in the short term (that is, the number of returnees is too fierce, resulting in insufficient flight supply). This has been the case for many years. This year's Hainan customs closure has exacerbated the imbalance of supply and demand, and there is no solution in the short term."

In Chen Jie's view, from the perspective of the tourism industry, in order to rectify this situation, we must first encourage everyone to travel during off-peak periods, especially to encourage medium and long-term residence in Hainan, so as to avoid crowds during the holiday peak season, and this trend is obvious. Secondly, everyone should be encouraged to disperse to provinces such as Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi that are also suitable for cold escape. This can effectively reduce traffic congestion. At present, this trend does exist.

"The only places in China suitable for shelter from the cold are those in the south, so gathering during the Spring Festival is normal, and the industry is not surprised." Chen Jie said bluntly.

In response to the Spring Festival travel ticket prices that everyone is concerned about, Zhang Naifu, deputy director of the Marketing Committee of Hainan Airlines Holdings Co., Ltd., said that Hainan Airlines has always strictly implemented air ticket price policies and resolutely shouldered the airline's social responsibilities.

First of all, the full-price ticket price (announced fare) of each route strictly implements the pricing policy of the Civil Aviation Administration of China and is filed. It is subject to supervision by relevant departments and society throughout the process. There will never be a temporary price increase or a price exceeding the full-price ticket. However, due to the influence of market supply and demand and fluctuations in passenger flow demand, sales will be carried out at a certain discount during the off-season. In addition, in response to the higher standard travel needs of some passengers, Hainan Airlines will also provide supporting business class products for sale. Since business class is superior to economy class in terms of travel comfort, service experience and investment costs and is smaller in quantity, the price of business class is generally about double the full economy class fare.

In this regard, a person from a well-known flight travel platform pointed out in communication with the "BUG" column: "In fact, the current published fares of domestic air ticket fares must be approved by the Civil Aviation Administration. Currently, there is no domestic route whose published fares are approved to exceed 10,000 yuan. , the maximum is only 9,900 yuan, and airlines cannot display tickets that cost more than 10,000 yuan. "In his view, if there are no published fare regulations from the Civil Aviation Administration, there will be a large number of one-way (non-transit) tickets that may exceed 10,000 yuan.

He further pointed out: "In fact, in the past, transfer tickets were not allowed to exceed 10,000 yuan, but this year may be a new relaxation of control, or it may be a problem with the platform's management and control strategy, resulting in a very few transfer tickets exceeding 10,000 yuan on the booking platform."