Tourists boost consumption numbers in holiday season

Popular destinations record massive increase in visitors year-on-year

A surge in tourism activities has provided a boost to consumption-related sectors as the nation recorded impressive growth in traveler numbers and consumption revenues during the eight-day combined Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday, indicating strong resilience and recovery momentum in the world's second-largest economy.

The prolonged holiday has seen 114 million people travel by train over the past seven days. Last year, only 72.16 million passengers took the train during the seven-day National Day holiday.

Together with increasing traveler numbers, multiple regions have released bright consumption data for the extended holiday period, recording a year-on-year rebound in holiday consumption, which in turn is driving a rebound in domestic demand.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism said that in the first three days of the holidays, a total of 395 million domestic tourism trips were made, an increase of 75.8 percent year-on-year. Domestic tourism revenue touched 342.24 billion yuan ($46.87 billion), a year-on-year increase of 125.3 percent.

Jason Yu, general manager of Kantar Worldpanel China, said: "The eight-day long break is the longest holiday in the year for Chinese consumers and the surge in tourism and consumption across different channels indicates a reassuring rebound in consumer demand." He added that the experience-driven consumption during the holidays also demonstrated the great resilience and vitality of China's consumption power.

Jiang Yiyi, deputy head of the School of Leisure Sports and Tourism at Beijing Sport University, said the holiday this year was the first to last for eight days after the pandemic, providing ample time for medium- and long-distance travel.

Major tourist destinations have benefited enormously from the holidays. Customs in Haikou, Hainan province, for example, witnessed a total of 1.01 billion yuan in duty-free sales in the first six days of the holidays, according to Xinhua News Agency. The 130,000 duty-free shoppers were mainly inbound domestic tourists. The sales and shopper figures show an increase of 94.2 percent and 120 percent, respectively, compared with the same period last year.

According to Guizhou Daily, the Guizhou Provincial Department of Commerce said that in the first two days of the "Double Festival", the province's total consumption stood at 10.11 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 40.46 percent, with the number of consumers at 14.2 million, a year-on-year increase of 37.39 percent.

The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism revealed that in the first three days of the holidays, Beijing's key tourist attractions received a total of 6.825 million visitors, an increase of 60.6 percent year-on-year and 31.8 percent compared to 2019; The cumulative total operating revenue was 418.76 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 25.2 percent.