Golden Week tourism boom shows economic confidence

China's National Day holidays, widely referred to as the "Golden Week," has seen a significant tourism boom, with a notable growth in passenger trips across the country and a remarkable surge in inbound and outbound travel, according to official data and reports from major Chinese tourism booking platforms on Monday.

The bustling scenes at many tourist attractions across the country, reflected by the strong data, further highlight the robust growth in China's tourism and consumption market, two major drivers for China's economic growth, as well as the vitality of the Chinese economy, experts said.

Chinese authorities recently rolled out a series of policy measures to boost economic growth, significantly lifting expectations for continued growth in the world's second-largest economy. With continuous and intensifying policy support, the Chinese economy is expected to see stable growth for the rest of the year, experts noted.

Strong growth

On Monday, the last day of the weeklong National Day holidays, cross-regional passenger trips reached more than 278.76 million, up 5.2 percent from the number during the same period in 2023, according to data released by the Ministry of Transport (MOT).

Notably, the number represented a 24.8 percent growth from that of the same period in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. In terms of mode of transportation, China's railway network saw more than 18.52 million trips, up 8.6 percent from 2023 and 26.6 percent from 2019, the MOT data showed.

The MOT previously predicted that total cross-regional travel could reach 1.94 billion trips during the seven-day Golden Week, with daily trips expected to reach 277 million trips, up 0.7 percent from 2023 and 19.4 percent from 2019.

While a final tally on total tourism trips and consumption was not yet available as of press time on Monday, multiple indicators from Chinese travel and tourism booking platforms showed strong growth.

Significantly, cross-border travel saw remarkable growth. On Ctrip, one of China's largest online travel agencies, daily order volume for outbound and inbound travel exceeded that of 2019, reaching a record high, according to a report the company sent to the Global Times on Monday.

"During the National Day holidays, average daily orders for hotels and B&Bs increased significantly year-on-year, demonstrating the resilience of China's tourism consumption. The spillover effect of this consumption resilience has also injected new momentum into the global tourism industry," Ctrip's report said.

Another report from Tongcheng Travel, a leading travel platform in China, also showed sustained growth in the domestic travel and consumption market during the National Day holidays, with significant growth in travel consumption among residents from smaller cities.

On Tongcheng's travel platform, bookings for car hire in third-tier or smaller cities increased by more than 50 percent and hotel bookings in nearly 100 counties jumped more than 50 percent year-on-year, according to the report sent to the Global Times on Monday.

Another online travel agency Qunar also said there was remarkable growth in trips made by residents in smaller Chinese cities. Bookings for outbound travel made by residents from third-tier or smaller cities jumped 300 percent year-on-year, while those made by residents from second-tier cities jumped by 70 percent, Qunar said in a report sent to the Global Times on Monday.

Overall, the National Day holidays continued the sustained tourism boom that started at the beginning of the year. In the first three quarters of 2024, the number of domestic tourism trips is expected to reach 4.29 billion, up 16.8 percent year-on-year, and tourism expenditure is expected to hit 4.32 trillion yuan, jumping 17.1 percent year-on-year, close to the peak level in 2019.

Positive momentum

Experts said that stable growth in the tourism and consumption markets offer solid impetus for the overall stable growth of the Chinese economy, as consumption is the biggest economic growth driver.

"The strong growth momentum in the tourism sector reflects a positive shift in consumption momentum. It reflects a major issue: improving expectations among consumers for the economy," said Li Chang'an, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.

Li said that policy measures to boost the economy have significantly boosted expectations for stable growth, which will continue to encourage consumers to spend on travel and other areas. "This is the result of various policy packages, and it is a very positive signal," Li said.

Since the start of the year, China has released a number of policy measures to boost consumption as well as overall economic growth, including a wide-ranging program to promote trade-ins of consumer goods. In August, ultra-long special treasury bonds worth 150 billion yuan dedicated to trade-ins of consumer goods were issued to Chinese localities.

"Consumption is undoubtedly the main driver for economic growth," Cong Yi, a professor at the Tianjin School of Administration, told the Global Times on Monday, noting that the policy measures have played a critical role in ensuring stable growth in consumption. "As policy support continues to intensify, tourism and cultural consumption will continue to see stable growth."

In addition, Chinese authorities recently rolled out a huge package of monetary and other policies to boost the economy. On September 27, the People's Bank of China (PBC), the central bank, announced a 50-basis points cut to the reserve requirement ratio, the amount of cash banks are required to hold as reserves. The move is expected to inject approximately 1 trillion-yuan worth of long-term liquidity into the financial market. The same day, the PBC reduced the seven-day reverse repo rate from 1.7 percent to 1.5 percent.

"The policy support is not limited to boosting consumption during the holidays, but it will be a continuous process," Li said, noting that new policies have focused on various critical aspects. "The package of coordinated policies will help sustain the positive momentum during the National Day holidays and will play a key role in ensuring long-term economic growth."