A growing number of people in China are opting for off-peak travel due to fewer crowds and the decline in flight and hotel prices following the National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, leading to a significant surge in customer inquiries in many travel agencies.

A travel agency in Guangzhou, capital of south China’s Guangdong Province, was bustling with customers, many of whom were seniors. They were interested in a range of travel options, from tours within Guangdong to long-distance domestic and outbound trips.

“We want to go to Henan to visit Laojun Mountain and the Red Flag Canal. Our group of more than a dozen classmates, all retired, will be traveling together. Since tourist spots are crowded with students during the summer and winter holidays, we’d like to leave those periods for them. We senior travelers are better off taking our trips during the off-peak season,” said Mrs. Huang, a local resident.

“The desert poplar forest in Xinjiang and Ejina Banner, and regions like Beijing, Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan are all top choices for off-peak travel. For example, a 10-day tour in Xinjiang that cost about 12,000 yuan (around 1,684.7 U.S. dollars) during the National Day holiday can be booked for just over 5,000 yuan in November, a reduction of over 50 percent,” said Guan Jian, brand manager of the travel agency.

Besides silver-haired travelers, some office workers enjoying their annual leave were among the off-peak tour groups at the departure hall of Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport.

“We booked our tickets in August. We will depart from Hong Kong to Shenzhen and then take a flight to Beijing. From Beijing, we will catch another flight to Russia. It’s a good time for travel now as the weather is pleasant and the border crossings are now very convenient to get through quickly,” said a tourist from Hong Kong.

“My last trip was in July. At that time, the round-trip ticket price between Shenzhen and Xi’an exceeded 2,000 yuan. Now, the price is just over 1,000 yuan,” said a tourist from northwest China’s Shaanxi Province.

“For flights departing between now and Oct 31, the average ticket price has dropped by 36 percent compared with that in the National Day holiday, a decrease of nearly 40 percent. Meanwhile, the average price for chain hotels has also fallen by nearly 30 percent from the holiday period. Meanwhile, the average price for international flights and hotels have each decreased by about 20 percent compared with the National Day holiday levels,” said Shi Ke, researcher at the Big Data Research Institute of the online travel service provider Qunar.

The Hong Kong stock market closed higher on Thursday with the benchmark Hang Seng Index up 0.72 percent to close at 25,967.98 points.

The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index rose 0.83 percent to end at 9,300.74 points, and the Hang Seng Tech Index rose 0.48 percent to end at 5,951.45 points.