GUANGZHOU,April 11,2025-As the first holiday after the Spring Festival,the Qingming holiday has spawned a boom in short-and medium-distance cross-city travel.According to China Car Rental's 2025 Qingming holiday car rental travel data,during the Qingming Festival holiday,cross-city car rental travel demand showed an explosive growth trend,and the total business volume surged by 416%year-on-year in 2024.Among them,inter-provincial orders increased by 711%,and inter-city orders in the province increased by 295%."Cross-city car rental"is becoming a new growth engine for the car rental industry.
Small long vacation spawns popular gameplay of"three days across two cities"
During the Qingming holiday this year,the flexible travel mode of"three days across two cities"has been popular among consumers,especially the short-distance inter-city tours in the province and inter-provincial tours in neighboring provinces.
Data show that this year's cross-city car rental orders,inter-city short-distance travel in the province accounted for more than 55%,Shijiazhuang,Shenyang,Changchun,Harbin and other provincial capital cities to achieve cross-city orders more than 10 times increase,Sanya-Haikou,Dali-Lijiang,Zhuhai-Guangzhou,Luoyang-Zhengzhou,Fuzhou-Quanzhou,Shantou-Jieyang and other routes are also popular choices for Qingming inter-city short-distance travel,users through car rental to achieve"departure-destination"seamless connection,to achieve efficient short-distance travel.
In the inter-provincial scenario,there is a significant demand for"cross-city linkage"in key economic circles such as Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei,Yangtze River Delta,Pearl River Delta,and Chengdu-Chongqing.These cities are not only densely populated regional economic hubs,but also popular destinations for short-distance tourism and returning home.For example,orders on routes such as Hangzhou-Shanghai,Chongqing-Chengdu,and Tianjin-Beijing all increased more than threefold year-on-year.
"In the past,users may only choose to drive across provinces during long holidays,but now the'high-frequency and short-distance'travel mode of'three days across two cities'is changing from early adopters to the norm,and users are more inclined to use car rentals to travel in tandem with destinations to maximize the value of their holidays,"said the person in charge of renting a car in China.
Cross-city travel is expected to become a new blue ocean for the car rental industry
As the demand for travel during the Qingming holiday is released,renting a car across cities is becoming a new choice for urban people,providing consumers with more free time,more convenient travel,and more direct destination travel options.
According to the data of the Ministry of Transport,during the Qingming Festival this year,the personal flow of the whole society across regions reached 790 million,setting a new high for Qingming holiday travel.The short-term concentrated and tidal flow travel characteristics put pressure on traditional transportation such as high-speed rail and civil aviation.There are obvious travel pain points in the 300-500 km short-distance travel circle:high-speed rail transfers require multiple transfers,air travel has check-in waiting and airport commuting time.And car rental companies just fill this experience gap through the nationwide operation network.
Taking Shenzhou Car Rental as an example,its direct sales outlets adopt a unified national standardized service system,densely covering the core cities and transportation hubs of key economic circles.Through a unified vehicle deployment mechanism and intelligent management system,Shenzhou Car Rental can dynamically match the car demand in different regions,and can realize the dynamic circulation of vehicle resources in key economic circles.Users only need to pick up the car at the departure point and return the car at the local outlet after arriving at the destination.There is no need to return to the original rental point,realizing a closed-loop experience of"free travel across cities".
According to industry analysts,the essence of this service capability is a market-oriented supplement to the public transportation network.With the acceleration of metropolitan area urbanization,car rental services not only undertake the intensive advantages of public transportation,but also retain the flexibility of private travel.The car rental industry is expected to usher in new business growth points under the increasingly strong demand for cross-city and inter-provincial travel,so as to further seize market share in the broader trillion-dollar blue ocean market.
