HK Stock Market Move | Tourism concept stocks rose in early trading, with the heat of the Qingming Festival boosting expectations for May Day, as tourists locked in travel resources in advance.

Concept stocks in the tourism sector rose across the board in the morning session. As of the time of writing, TRIP.COM-S (09961) rose by 4.68% to 416.2 Hong Kong dollars; CHINA TRAVEL HK (00308) rose by 2.61% to 1.18 Hong Kong dollars; TONGCHENG TRAVEL (00780) rose by 2.19% to 18.68 Hong Kong dollars; MEITUAN-W (03690) rose by 2.06% to 86.85 Hong Kong dollars. On the news front, with the approaching May Day holiday, the tourism market has already entered a preheating stage. According to data from AVIC, as of April 9th, the domestic flight ticket booking volume for the May Day holiday exceeded 1.94 million, an increase of about 8% compared to the same period last year. According to calculations from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism Data Center, during the 3-day Qingming Festival holiday, there were 135 million domestic trips nationwide, a 6.8% increase from last year; total expenditure on trips reached 61.367 billion yuan, a 6.6% increase year-on-year. Everbright Securities pointed out that the strong performance of the tourism market during the Qingming holiday has created a "ripple effect," further raising expectations for the May Day holiday tourism market. Data from TONGCHENGTRAVEL shows that the search popularity for May Day holiday travel products during the Qingming period increased by over 320% compared to the previous period. Due to expectations of increased fuel surcharges and hotel price hikes, tourists have been locking in popular destinations and long-haul flights and hotel resources in advance, benefiting OTA platforms and companies in the travel chain.