As the Spring Festival travel rush intensifies, the surge in self-driving trips for family reunions and holiday excursions is driving a spike in car rentals and vehicle maintenance services across China, reflecting a shift in consumer behavior during the holiday season.
In Xiamen City, east China's Fujian Province, rental agencies report a notable increase in local families opting for larger vehicles to accommodate group travel.
"These vehicles offer better configurations, more space, and greater comfort. Current reservation rates have reached 60 percent," said Hu Pengcheng, manager of a car rental company.
Beyond Xiamen, self-driving tourism is also booming in southwest China's Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, as well as other regions.
According to data from major rental platforms, nationwide car rental orders around the Spring Festival period have increased by nearly 20 percent year on year. The average rental duration has extended to around five days, up 30 percent from last year. The share of cross-city return bookings has risen significantly, signaling that "intercity self-driving travel" is becoming a new normal during the holidays.
The surge in pre-holiday demand has extended beyond the car rental market, as vehicle owners prepare their cars for long-distance travel, driving a peak in automotive cleaning and maintenance services.
The Spring Festival travel rush, also known as chunyun, is the world's largest annual human migration, as a total of 9.5 billion people are expected to embark on journeys across the nation to reunite with loved ones and celebrate the arrival of the Chinese New Year on Feb. 17 this year.
Self-driving travel fuels China's pre-holiday boom in car rental, maintenance services
