BETWEEN the Mid-Autumn Festival and the approaching National Day holidays, observers expect the tourism momentum to be sustained, propelling the country’s economic recovery in late 2024.
Cultural tourism
The Mid-Autumn Festival holidays witnessed a rise in the popularity of Chinese traditional cultural resorts. Online searches for moon-viewing tours grew by 61 percent, while searches for lantern-viewing tours skyrocketed by 267 percent compared with last year, according to data provided by online travel platform Fliggy.com.
BOOST Crowded people at the giant panda pavilion of the Chongqing Zoo on Sept. 17, 2024. Experts expect the long holidays to drive China’s economic recovery in the latter part of 2024. GLOBAL TIMES PHOTO
Cultural tourism has become a major trend for domestic travelers during the holidays, with the number of tourists steadily increasing, bolstered by the implementation of the government’s support policies and upgraded tourism infrastructure and services, said Cong Yi, a professor at the Tianjin School of Administration.
A total of 107 million domestic tourism trips were made during the Mid-Autumn Festival holidays from September 15 to 17, which grew by 6.3 percent year on year. Tourism-related spending soared by 8 percent from 2019 to reach 51.047 billion yuan ($7.24 billion), the Ministry of Culture and Tourism said.
Not too far from the Mid-Autumn Festival, the National Day holidays will last from October 1 to October 7― making it a “golden week.” Data released by major online travel platforms showed a growing interest of the public in both domestic and international tourism.
A rising number of Chinese have opted to travel overseas during the seven-day-long break. Multiple tourists told the Global Times that they have planned to travel to destinations such as Thailand, Japan, Spain and Iceland.
The outbound flight and hotel bookings on Chinese online travel agency Qunar.com for the “golden week” covered 1,597 cities in 144 countries and regions, the company said.
The number of tourist visas handled by another travel platform Trip.com for the upcoming holidays grew by 70 percent year on year, the platform said in a statement sent to the Global Times.
As for domestic traveling, autumn-themed activities and outdoor scenic spots have been trendy as travelers aim to catch up with the beautiful autumn weather and scenery in major Chinese cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Xi’an, Chengdu and Chongqing.
The search volume for “autumn outing” on an online tourism platform Mafengwo.com increased by 116 percent year on year, the company said. From September 29 to October 8, China’s railway system is expected to transport 175 million passengers, with a peak of more than 21 million trips to be made on October 1, the first day of the National Day holiday.
Retail sales during the coming “golden week” holidays are expected to keep pace with the Mid-Autumn Festival holidays, which will further boost the Chinese economy, Zhang Yi, chief executive officer of iiMedia Research Institute, said.
Stepped-up support
The holidays used to drive up market demand for big-ticket commodities such as home appliances and automobiles, and the sales will be boosted by the government’s policy support to promote domestic consumption through a series of consumer goods trade-ins.
While China’s home consumption is undergoing structural changes, the substantive government policy support, including the trade-in plan, is expected to unleash higher domestic consumption in the remaining months this year, said Cong.
In the first eight months of 2024, retail sales of consumer goods increased by 3.4 percent year on year, according to data provided by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Online sales remained a bright spot, rising by 8.9 percent year on year.
NBS spokesman Liu Aihua recently highlighted the recovery trend of China’s domestic consumer market, typically in services, new-type consumption and online sales.
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