Recent data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism highlights a total of 295 million domestic trips during the holiday, a jump of 28.2% over the same period in 2019.

This growth is largely facilitated by sophisticated transportation networks and digital booking systems that cater to a diverse range of consumer preferences. Cities like Guangxi’s Liuzhou, Shandong’s Zibo, and Gansu’s Tianshui have gained popularity, driven by improved accessibility and digital visibility.

The financial implications are significant, with total tourism spending reaching 166.89 billion yuan, marking a 12.7% increase year-over-year. This economic uplift is supported by technological enhancements in payment systems and personalized marketing, which help tap into changing consumer behaviors more effectively.

The Ministry of Transport reports a cross-regional movement of approximately 136 million people during the period, facilitated by robust rail and road networks.

Technological improvements in these areas have not only improved the efficiency of travel but have also enhanced the overall user experience by streamlining processes such as ticket purchasing and real-time traffic management.

China witnessed a remarkable surge in tourism activities, with domestic travels reaching 474 million, a 34.3% increase from the previous year and a 19.0% rise compared to the same period in 2019, according to data from China Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

This period saw domestic tourists spending a staggering 632.687 billion yuan, marking a 47.3% year-on-year increase and a 7.7% growth from 2019 levels.

On average, each traveler expended approximately 1,335 yuan, underscoring the sector’s robust recovery and the growing enthusiasm for travel among the Chinese populace.

In addition to domestic travels, cross-border tourism also saw a significant uptick, with about 6.83 million inbound and outbound trips. The distribution between outbound and inbound travels was fairly balanced, with approximately 3.6 million outbound trips and 3.23 million inbound trips, highlighting China’s appeal as both a premier global travel destination and a significant source market for international tourism.

The cultural and entertainment sectors benefited from this travel boom, with 16,300 commercial performances happening nationwide, witnessing a 52.10% increase over the previous year.

These performances generated 778 million yuan in ticket sales, up 80.09% from the previous year, and attracted 6.5765 million attendees, marking a 77.71% increase year-over-year.

The 2024 Spring Festival film market set new records, with total box office revenues reaching 8.023 billion yuan. This achievement was supported by an unprecedented number of cinema-goers, 163 million, and screenings, 3.937 million, highlighting the entertainment industry’s significant role in China’s tourism and cultural landscape.

Reflecting on the entire year of 2023, domestic travel figures reached 48.91 billion trips, a 93.3% increase from the previous year.

Urban and rural residents alike contributed to this surge, with urban residents undertaking 37.58 billion trips (a 94.9% increase) and rural residents accounting for 11.33 billion trips (an 88.5% increase).

The total expenditure by domestic tourists soared to 4.91 trillion yuan, up 140.3%, indicating a robust demand for travel and leisure activities.

These statistics underscore the resilience and potential of China’s tourism industry, signalling the start of a new growth era in the post-pandemic world.

As travel restrictions ease and consumer confidence returns, the sector is poised for further expansion, promising significant economic benefits.

On May 3rd, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism released travel data for the holiday period, showing that domestic tourists reached 274 million and the domestic tourism revenue hit 148.06 billion yuan (US$21.41 billion), both surpassing the same period in 2019.

Online travel platforms, including Ctrip, Tongcheng, Tuniu, and Fliggy, also reported record-breaking data for the Labor Day holiday.

Scenic spots saw a 9-fold increase in ticket sales compared to last year.

According to Ctrip’s “2023 Labor Day Travel Data Report,” the top five popular scenic spots were Shanghai Disneyland Resort, Humble Administrator’s Garden, Huangshan Scenic Area, Mount Emei, and Mount Hua.

Family tourists, particularly those with children, contributed significantly to the surge in visitors, with theme parks, zoos, and museums accounting for more than half of the top ten popular spots.

The preference of tourists diversified during this year’s Labor Day holiday, with a more robust demand for high-level cultural products. Museums such as the Palace Museum, the National Museum of China, Shaanxi History Museum, and others saw their ticket sales fully booked for several consecutive days. Immersive performances, river cruises, and intangible cultural heritage shows were also in high demand.

Cross-provincial travel accounted for more than 70% of hotel bookings, with the average distance traveled by tourists increasing by 25% compared to last year. This year’s holiday saw a trend towards longer trips, with group tours lasting five days or more making up 30% of bookings, up from 20% in 2019.

Besides traditional popular destinations like Beijing, Shanghai, and Hangzhou, smaller destinations like Zibo also witnessed a surge in popularity.

Driven by the phenomenal popularity of “Zibo Barbecue,” hotel bookings in Shandong Province increased nearly threefold compared to the same period in 2019, with Zibo’s hotel bookings increasing more than tenfold.

Experts predict that while the domestic tourism market will stabilize after the Labor Day holiday, the summer peak season will see another surge in student and family travel. However, as some tourists opt for outbound travel during the summer, the domestic tourism heat is expected to be less intense compared to this Labor Day holiday.

To maintain the positive momentum in tourism consumption, local authorities must continue to innovate their offerings, implement more precise branding and marketing strategies, and continuously upgrade their service levels to promote the role of tourism consumption in economic growth.

Gen-Z Insights: capturing attention of China’s post-95s consumers

Domestic tourism revenue during this period reached 375.843 billion yuan (US$73.29 billion), up 30% year on year, and recovered to 73.1% in the same period of 2019.
During the CNY festival, 10,739 A-level tourist attractions were opened normally, accounting for 73.5% of the total number of A-level tourist attractions in China. About 110,000 mass cultural activities were held nationwide, with about 473 million participants.

The 243 national-level night culture and tourism consumption clusters have 52.122 million visitors, with an average of 30,600 passengers per night in each cluster.

The number of tourists received by Sichuan province ranked first, reaching 53.8759 million, and the tourism revenue reached 24.216 billion yuan, up 24.73% and 10.43%, respectively, year on year, recovering to 89.73% and 84.75% of the CNY 2019. Compared with the total tourism revenue, Yunnan contributed 38.435 billion yuan of tourism revenue in seven days.

According to Qunar data, each traveler traveled 400 kilometers more than last year, and the outbound air ticket was 6.7 times more than that in 2022.

As of January 26, during CNY in 2023, the number of air tickets booked in popular cities had exceeded that before the epidemic (the CNY in 2019).

In 2023, the average price paid for air tickets during CNY was 845 yuan, the same as before the epidemic.

According to Qunar CEO Chen Gang, there will be more opportunities in overseas markets in 2023. During CNY, outbound air tickets increased by 6.7 times over the same period in 2022. The top 5 destinations are Thailand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the United States, and Indonesia. With the increase in flight supply, it is expected that the number of international air tickets and international hotel reservations will continue to grow.

Duty-free consumption in Hainan continued to be popular. According to Haikou Customs statistics, from January 21 to 27, Haikou Customs supervised 1.56 billion yuan in sales of duty-free shopping, an increase of 5.88% over the CNY holiday in 2022;

The number of duty-free shoppers was 157,000, an increase of 9.51% YoY; per capita consumption is 9,959 yuan.

According to Ctrip data, this year’s Spring Festival, cross-border ticket bookings increased more than four times year-on-year. Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Chiang Mai, Manila, and Bali have become the most popular international travel destinations for Chinese tourists.

Mao Ning, a spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, responded that during the Spring Festival this year, the number of people leaving the country exceeded 2.87 million, with an average of 410,000 per day, an increase of 120.5% over the same period last year. The overall order for outbound travel of Chinese tourists increased by 640% year on year, and the order for air tickets increased by more than four times.

Mobile payment trends in China outbound tourism

Domestic tourism revenue was RMB 26.517 billion, a year-on-year increase of 4.0% and a comparable recovery of 35.1% compared to the same period in the 2019 New Year’s Day holiday.

“Cold escape” is still the first choice for Chinese travelers. Traveling to warmer climes is a favorite. Southern China’s mild winter weather attracts many tourists at home and abroad to escape from the cold. Tourism in rural areas of Guangdong cities such as Meizhou, Qingyuan, and Shantou was a particular bright spot.

According to Alibaba’s OTA platform Fliggy, the amount of tourism bookings in Hainan destinations increased by more than 50% compared with 2022.

At the same time, during New Year’s Day, the number of tourist merchandise bookings, including keywords such as “seascape”, “island”, and “surfing” increased by more than 60% year on year.

The orders for cross-provincial and trans-city tours accounted for nearly 80%, reaching the peak in nearly a year. More than 70% of the post-90s and post-00s young users became the main force during this holiday.

Trip.com’s international business maintained rapid recovery, with the overall air-ticket bookings on global platforms increasing over 100% year over year.

Its total net revenue increased by 29% year over year and increased by 72% quarter over quarter to RMB6.9 billion (US$969 million), mainly driven by the robust recovery in China’s domestic market and overseas markets.

• Accommodation reservation revenue was RMB2.9 billion (US$408 million), representing a 32% increase YoY or 114% increase QoQ
• Transportation ticketing revenue was RMB2.6 billion (US$369 million), representing a 44% YoY or 49% QoQ
• Packaged-tour revenue was relatively stable at RMB387 million (US$54 million) compared to the same period in 2021. Packaged-tour revenue increased by 217% from the previous quarter
• Corporate travel revenue was RMB370 million (US$52 million), representing a 9% YoY or 76% increase QoQ

Net income for the third quarter of 2022 was RMB245 million (US$34 million), which improved from a net loss of RMB868 million for the same period in 2021 and a net income of RMB43 million for the previous quarter.

Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter of 2022 was RMB1.4 billion (US$198 million), representing a 164% increase from RMB537 million for the same period in 2021 and a 300% increase from RMB355 million for the previous quarter.

Adjusted EBITDA margin was 21% for the third quarter, compared with 10% for the same period in 2021 and 9% for the previous quarter.

As of 12:00 on 8 December, the travel search popularity for 2023 last week had increased by more than 900% compared with the same period last year. Within two hours after the release of the New Year’s holiday schedule on 8 December, the search volume of Trip.com’s air tickets and hotel products increased by 6 times and 7 times respectively from the same period the previous day.

The COVID-19 prevention and control policies have a great impact on the tourism and leisure consumption of urban and rural residents across the country. The passenger flow in Jiuzhaigou, Hangzhou West Lake, and other scenic spots decreased significantly compared with previous years.

The domestic tourism revenue reached 64.68 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 42.9%, returning to 44.0% in the same period before the epidemic.

The total number of tourists received in Beijing was 3.061 million, and the total tourism revenue was 1.58 billion yuan. In 2021, Beijing received 8.426 million tourists, with total tourism revenue of 9.3 billion yuan.

Jiangsu has received 8.4519 million tourists, with a total tourism consumption of 4.07 billion yuan. In the “May Day” in 2021, Jiangsu received 35.3757 million tourists, realizing a total tourism revenue of 30.113 billion yuan.

The average occupancy rate of Sanya hotel was 20.57%, a year-on-year decrease of more than 60%.

According to the data of China Index Research Institute, during China’s May Day holiday this year (April 30 to May 4), the transaction of new commercial houses in key monitoring cities decreased by 52.3% compared with last year’s May Day holiday.

According to Pengpai news reports, the transaction scale of new houses in most representative cities decreased year-on-year, with a year-on-year decrease of more than 50% in Wuhan, Suzhou, and Wenzhou.

Gen-Z Insights: capturing attention of China’s post-95s consumers

83.0% of its average MAUs was attributed to Tencent-based platforms with the majority of the traffic coming from WeChat Pay portal and the dropdown list of users’ favorite or most frequently used mini-programs.

The average MPUs increased by 84.5% year-to-year from 14.8 million in the same period of 2020 to 27.3 million, mainly attributable to its stable traffic on WeChat channels. Read our WeChat Mini Programs Insights 2021.

Paying users for the 12-month period ended March 31, 2021, increased by 12.9% year-on-year from 149.9 million in the same twelve-month period of 2020 to 169.3 million. And, Tongcheng Elong’s paying ratio recovered to 11.7% for Q1 2021.

Revenues increased by 60.6% year-to-year to RMB1,613.8 million from RMB1,005.1 million in the same period of 2020.

Compared with Q1 2019, it has achieved 45.0% growth in its domestic room nights sold, with more than 70.0% growth in lower-tier cities, around 20.0% increase in domestic air ticketing volume, and nearly 150.0% increase in bus ticketing volume.

Its total GMV increased by 83.0% year-on-year to RMB33.3 billion.

The adjusted EBITDA increased by 162.7% year-to-year to RMB417.4 million from RMB158.9 million in the same period of 2020. Adjusted EBITDA margin increased from 15.8% in the same period of 2020 to 25.9%.

The adjusted profit for the period increased by 279.5% year-to-year to RMB296.3 million from RMB78.1 million in the same period of 2020. The adjusted net margin increased from 7.8% in the same period of 2020 to 18.4%.

Tongcheng-Elong cooperated with short video platforms to promote its hotel and tourist attraction products. Besides, it has commenced cooperation with a leading e-commerce platform in China by providing its travel-related products and services on the platform, to explore new traffic sources and further penetrate into lower-tier cities market.

It also cooperated with hotels to set up QR code scanning function to convert traffic from offline to its WeChat mini-program.

Mini Program platforms 2021: WeChat vs. Alibaba vs. Baidu

The added value of the tourism industry was 4,075.8 billion yuan, accounting for 90.6 percent of the total added value of tourism and related industries while the related industries contributed to 9.4%.

Within the tourism industry in China, tourism shopping was the largest segment in 2019, with an added value of 1,407.7 billion yuan, accounting for 31.3% of the added value of all tourism and related industries, followed by transportation, with an added value of 1,205.5 billion yuan, accounting for 26.8% of the added value of all tourism and related industries.

In terms of growth rate, tourism entertainment, tourism accommodation, and comprehensive tourism services developed rapidly, with nominal growth of 12.9%, 10.4% and 10.0% respectively compared with the previous year.

Sales of admission tickets for amusement parks rose by 437% on JD compared with the same period last year. Sales of suburban amusement tours increased by 153%, in which sales were up 300% in several scenic destinations areas in Beijing, Xinjiang, Yunnan, etc.

Hotel sales went up by 106% on JD, and hotel stay &entertainment package sales were 6 times more than the same period last year. Domestic flight tickets sales were up 172% while mobile payment services surpassed 427%.

JD Travel is part of JD’s Life & Services business group. Other services include automotive maintenance, online real estate purchase, online auction and fresh flowers booking.

With over 100,000 products from 30,000 well-known brands offered online which in turn activate over a million offline business, JD Life & Services is providing a variety of promotions during 618, many of which represent more than 50% discounts.

The growth of consumption of daily life services signifies the beginning of an overall economic recovery. JD Life & Services for consumers is playing an active role in integrating online and offline, and retail and services.

Check out 618 Shopping Festival: Taobao vs. JD

Tongcheng-eLong’s average MPUs increased by 21.5% year-to-year from 22.3 million in Q4 2018 to 27.1 million in Q4 2019.

Its revenue increased by 24.4% year-to-year to RMB1,956.5 million in Q4 2019. And, the adjusted EBITDA increased by 47.7% year-to-year to RMB415.1 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin increased from 17.9% YoY to 21.2%.

The adjusted profit for Q4 2019 increased by 67.7% year-to-year to RMB 331.1 million in Q4 2019. The adjusted net margin increased from 12.6% in Q4 2018 to 16.9%.

In 2019, the average MAUs of Tongcheng-eLong increased by 17.1% year-to-year from 175.2 million in 2018 to 205.2 million. And, the average MPUs increased by 34.5% year-to-year from 20.0 million in 2018 to 26.9 million.

The total GMV grew by 26.3% to 166.1 billion yuan in 2019. eLong’s paying ratios also increased from 11.4% in 2018 to 13.1% in 2019.

In 2019, Tongcheng-eLong’s total revenue increased by 21.4% from RMB 6,090.8 million in 2018 to RMB7,392.9 million in 2019.

Adjusted profit for the year increased by 35.4% from RMB1,140.7 million in 2018 to RMB1,544.3 million in 2019 and adjusted net margin for the year was 20.9% in 2019, representing an increase from 18.7% in 2018.

As of December 31, 2019, approximately 85.6% of its registered users resided in non-first-tier cities in China. About 62.4% of newly acquired paying users in WeChat were from tier-3 or lower-tier cities in China, which increased from 61.1% over the same period of 2018.

Currently, WeChat users can access its mini program within the WeChat ecosystem through:

1. WeChat Pay (Wallet) portal and a drop-down list of users’ favorite or most frequently used mini programs, which generated an average MAUs of 113.6 million in 2019, accounting for 65.7% of the total average MAUs of its Tencent-based platforms.

2. Interactive advertisements placed on the Tencent-based platforms, which generated an average MAUs of 37.7 million in 2019, accounting for 21.9% of the total average MAUs of its Tencent-based platforms.

3. The sharing and search functions in WeChat, which generated an average MAUs of 21.5 million in 2019, accounting for 12.4% of the total average MAUs of its Tencent-based platforms.

In addition, the average MAUs in its native apps recorded a faster growth than that in WeChat channel in the second half of 2019, mainly due to the expanding investments in marketing and R&D resources.

As of December 31, 2019, Tongcheng-eLong online platforms offered over 6,800 domestic routes and around 1.4 million international routes operated by more than 400 domestic and international airlines, over 2.0 million hotels selections and alternative accommodation options, approximately 346,000 bus routes, over 500 ferry routes and approximately 8,000 domestic tourist attractions ticketing services.

It has launched an accommodation upgrade service “WeChat Payment Point” with Tencent and an online seat selection service for international flights with China Southern Airlines with the implementation of NDC technology.

For the first quarter of 2020, it expects net revenue to decrease by about 42% to 47% year over year due to COVID-19.

In the first quarter and the whole year of 2020, the number of domestic tourists will decrease by 56% and 15.5% respectively according to China Tourism Academy. 2020 will see a decrease of 932 million person-trips. See the forecast here.

Airbnb released a report last week on Airbnb China’s women community. According to the report, as of February 10, 2020, 53% of active Chinese landlords are female, and China is one of the top 10 countries with the largest number of female landlords on the platform.

Among them, the millennial generation (Generation Y) and generation Z female landlords are the main players on the Airbnb platform. About 67% of female landlords are post-80s, post-90s and post-00s.

In 2019, Airbnb’s global female landlords are expected to earn US$14.9 billion (about 104.3 billion yuan) through shared accommodation, of which China ranks eighth in the world.

The year 2019 registered 6.01 billion domestic tourists person-trips in China, up by 8.4 percent over that of the previous year. Read more here.

Among the global landlords who receive at least 150 person-trips, more than 37% of the five-star rated female landlords are from China.

In 2019, the five-star rating of Chinese female landlords is 88%, higher than that of global female landlords (83%); the average rating of Chinese female landlords is 4.81, higher than that of global female landlords (4.77).

67% of the team leaders of Airbnb Chinese community are women.

The top ten cities with the largest distribution of female landlords are:

• Shanghai
• Beijing
• Chengdu
• Guangzhou
• Chongqing
• Hangzhou
• Shenzhen
• Xi’an
• Qingdao
• Wuhan

Last year, the top ten types of accommodations most favored by Chinese female tourists based on Airbnb report were: Inn, boat house, resort, island, farmhouse, country house, hotel apartment, boutique hotel, hotel, and apartment.

Among the top ten popular destinations most favored by global female tourists, China occupied four seats, namely Changsha in Hunan, Sanya in Hainan, Lijiang in Yunnan, and Beihai in Guangxi.

Among them, single-person travel is more and more popular with Chinese women. In 2019, the proportion of Chinese female tourists traveling alone in China increased by more than 1.6 times.

Characteristics of China outbound travelers in 4 segments

The gap between residents of second-tier and third-tier cities and those from first-tier cities is rapidly narrowing in terms of per capita outbound destinations, travel expenditure, and travel budget according to a report from Nielsen.

On per capita outbound destinations, there was virtually no difference between those in second-tier and first-tier cities.

In terms of per capita annual overseas travel expenditure, the difference between residents in third-tier and first-tier cities significantly dropped from USD 1,7241 in 2018 to USD606 in 2019.

On travel budget for the year 2020, the gap between residents in third-tier and first-tier cities shrank sharply from USD 1,859 in 2018 to USD 614 in 2019. The Nielsen survey also found that Chinese tourists from lower-tier cities had more definite future travel plans.

In 2019, the number of transactions Chinese tourists made via mobile payment continued to increase. On average, Chinese tourists paid via mobile payment 3.4 times out of every 10 payments in 2019, up from 3.2 times in 2018.

Chinese tourists’ focus on shopping had transformed because of more abundant forms of promotional and marketing activities provided by Chinese mobile payment.

European Merchants Accelerated Adoption of Chinese Mobile Payment

92% of Chinese tourists traveling to Europe said they are more likely to pay with mobile phones if more local merchants supported Chinese mobile payment solutions, and 89% said that they are more likely to shop and spend locally.

In the U.K. and France, the percentage of Chinese tourists who used mobile payments increased to 65% in 2019, with per capita mobile spending increased by about 10%.

Mobile Payments Facilitates Digital Operations of Merchants

88% of merchants in the Nielsen survey who have used additional services on Chinese payment platforms recognized that these solutions helped market their stores, and 63% believed that mobile payment and related services improved the efficiency of store management.

Nearly 70% of the U.K. merchants surveyed have begun utilizing services beyond payment on Alipay. 82% witnessed an increase in sales and customer traffic after connecting to the Chinese mobile payment platforms.

The integration of online and offline retail with a more digitized operation has further enhanced the consumer experience for Chinese tourists when traveling overseas and has resulted in a new experience for overseas merchants in their digital transformation.

More Overseas Merchants May Deepen Their Use of Chinese Mobile Payment Platforms

South Korea and Singapore, when it comes to their future store operation and management, 66% of surveyed merchants hope to carry out more digital store operations through Chinese mobile payment, and 66% of them hope to further store promotional and marketing activities leveraging Chinese mobile payment platforms.

Integrated in Alibaba’s ecosystem, Alipay helped merchants realize traffic monetization from both online and offline channels, which is appealing to regions that have embraced Chinese mobile payments.

78% of the U.K. merchants surveyed said that they are likely to recommend Alipay to their industry peers in the future.

Top Travel Destinations

In 2019, destinations within a four-hour flight are still the most popular choices for Chinese tourists. Countries including Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and Singapore are still their favorites. And, the U.S., Australia, the U.K., and Canada are also among the top 10 countries.

Turkey rose to the top 20 destinations for Chinese tourists for the first time in 2019.

Top 5 countries where Chinese tourists love to use mobile payments are Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Australia, and Thailand.

And, the top 10 destinations in 2020 according to Nielsen’s survey are Japan, South Korea, the U.S., Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, France, Thailand, Maldives, and Italy.

The report also shows that lower-tier cities provide more driving force in the Chinese outbound tourism market, niche destinations gradually gained popularity among all age groups, young tourists spent more on a single trip.

CIW subscribers (annual membership) can download the report here.