China’s Golden Week holidays record 765m domestic trips

People visit a historical and cultural street in Xixiu District of Anshun City, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Oct. 2, 2024. The National Day holiday period, which runs from Oct. 1 to Oct. 7 this year, is a peak travel and tourism season in China. (Photo: Xinhua)

A total of 765 million domestic trips were made across China during the weeklong National Day holidays, up 5.9 percent year-on-year, and up 10.2 percent compared with the same holiday in 2019, according to data released by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MCT) on Tuesday.

Total spending by domestic tourists during the holidays rose by 6.3 percent year-on-year to 700.8 billion yuan ($99.32 billion), and rose by 7.9 percent compared with 2019, according to the ministry.

Amid residents' great enthusiasm to travel, domestic culture and travel spending boomed. Official data showed that 44,300 concerts and music festivals were held across the country, with ticket sales of 2.21 billion yuan, up 25.9 percent year-on-year.

Another highlight was the festival atmosphere at major business districts across the country.

During the holidays, pedestrian traffic in key business districts at night reached 96.86 million, up 25.4 percent year-on-year, according to the MCT.

The travel fervor over the Golden Week was within expectations, as residents' willingness to travel increased along with general income growth while all regions of the country have been stepping up efforts to improve tourism services to inject vitality into holiday consumption, Zhang Yi, CEO of the iiMedia Research Institute, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

For example, Shanghai said that it would issue vouchers worth a total of 500 million yuan targeting catering, hospitality, movies and sports, with the first batch of coupons issued on September 28, according to the local government.

Domestic social expectations have been improved as pro-growth policies continue to take effect, Zhang said. A meeting of the Political Bureau of Communist Party of China Central Committee on September 26 stressed that it is imperative to integrate the efforts to boost consumption and improve people's wellbeing, enable low- and middle-income groups to earn more, and optimize the consumption structure.

During the holidays, inbound tourism continued to grow, thanks to the adoption of favorable policies including the optimization of visa and customs policies, the expansion of visa-free policies and growing convenience for inbound tourism.

According to data released by multiple domestic online travel platforms, the number of bookings for inbound tourism surged about 60 percent year-on-year during the holidays, with many cities popular among foreign visitors.

Growing China travel underscores China's attractiveness and opening-up, Mao Ning, a spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said at a routine press briefing on Tuesday. "China will open wider to the outside world, and China will continue to facilitate cross-border travel," Mao said.