Tourists visit Xiangdong Street of Xinhua County, central China's Hunan Province, Oct. 2, 2023. The Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday period, which lasts from Sept. 29 to Oct. 6 this year, is a peak travel and tourism season in China. (Photo by Wu Yonghua/Xinhua)
BEIJING, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- The overlap of this year's Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday has created an extended "Golden Week", igniting a surge in residents' enthusiasm for travel and showcasing many highlights in China's consumer market.
As new holiday consumption trends such as night-time consumption, Hanfu shows, and sports tourism are flourishing, holiday consumption plays a vital role in pulling overall consumption and even economic growth.
-- Long-distance and cross-province trips grow significantly
During this year's "Double Festival" holiday, both the number of travelers and the scale of consumption exceeded figures registered in 2022 and 2019.
According to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, domestic tourism trips reached 826 million during the holiday, an increase of 4.1 percent from 2019 on a comparable basis, reaching 1.5 percent growth in the revenue of the tourism sector compared with 2019.
Various travel modes such as group tours, self-driving tours, rural tours, red tours, and peripheral tours are prevalent, and residents' travel radius has been significantly expanded.
China's leading online travel agency Ctrip data showed that during the National Day holiday, trans-provincial travel orders accounted for 51 percent, more than twice the growth compared to last year.
Xinjiang, Yunnan, and other remote border areas have become hot spots for tourists. Ctrip data showed that during the National Day holiday, group tour orders to Xinjiang and Yunnan nearly tripled compared to the same period last year.
In addition to traditional popular cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, large cities such as Chengdu, Changsha, Chongqing, Guangzhou, and Xi'an where tourists can visit, eat and have IPs are also very popular. Personalized entertainment such as tasting Chayan Yuese milk tea and visiting the Terracotta Warriors Hotel are also favored by young people.
The number of urban tourists traveling in third- and fourth-tier cities and the reception of out-of-city tourists have shown significant growth.
Data from the online travel service provider Qunar showed that during this holiday, the number of tourists from third- and fourth-tier cities increased by nearly 70 percent compared with 2019, and the average travel time for long-distance trips reached 5.1 days, higher than the average level.
According to a report released by the online travel agency Lvmama and KCHANCE, some third, fourth and fifth-tier cities, such as Anyang, Weifang, Yibin, Nanyang, etc., are more preferred by tourists in 2022 and 2019 due to the increased supply of new and characteristic business models.
Compared to large cities, the pressure of daily life in third and fourth-tier cities is relatively lower, and people spend more time on richer offline leisure and entertainment life, said Fu Yifu, a senior researcher at the Star Atlas Institute of Finance, adding that many young people take traveling as their first choice for vacation entertainment.
-- Sports events spark relevant tourism
In recent years, new models such as food tours, event tours and exhibition tours have continuously emerged, enriching the holiday travel experience and injecting new vitality into the consumer market.
During this holiday, sports events such as the Hangzhou Asian Games, China Open tennis tournament, and Shanghai Masters tennis tournament attracted many sports enthusiasts.
On the Alibaba's travel platform Fliggy platform, bookings for hotels and B&Bs in the six “Asian Games cities" during this year's National Day holiday increased by more than 60 percent compared to 2019.
Driven by the Asian Games trend, many people chose a sports-themed tour.
Data from the Meituan platform showed that the number of sports and fitness orders in Hangzhou increased by 762 percent. Across the country, orders for sports like billiards, tennis, and squash increased by more than 1,000 percent during the holiday, and niche sports such as archery, equestrian and rock climbing are gradually going viral in the country.
With the resumption of international flights and optimized visa policies, tourists’ consumption enthusiasm has extended to outbound travel.
Ctrip data showed that during the National Day holiday, outbound travel orders increased more than 8 times from the same period of last year.
Compared to the May Day holiday, destinations such as Switzerland, Spain, Russia, the United Kingdom, and France have witnessed the fastest growth in tourist numbers.
Inbound and outbound trips are expected to have a brighter prospect in the future.
It is learned that the Ministry of Culture and Tourism planed to introduce a series of policy measures to increase the supply of high-quality tourism, release the potential of tourism consumption and promote the high-quality development of the tourism industry.
Besides, a number of measures including increasing the supply of high-quality tourism, stimulating the demand for tourism consumption, enhancing the industry's development capacity and promoting inbound tourism are also to be put forward.
-- National Day wedding craze boosts multiple consumption
The "extended" holiday has also unleashed demands for traditional consumption like catering and commodities. Consumption growth in Shanghai and other places has returned to 2019 levels.
Statistics showed that during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday, the total value of all-factor tourism consumption transactions in Shanghai including food, accommodation, transportation, travel, shopping, and entertainment was 29.238 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 29.7 percent.
According to the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, Shanghai’s total online and offline consumption totaled 76.31 billion yuan.
The "wedding craze" during the National Day holiday has boosted online and offline travel, catering, clothing and jewelry consumption.
Data from China's top internet platforms JD showed that the “golden chains set” for weddings is the hottest, with sales increasing by 892 percent year-on-year. Flowers and gifts are also selling well, with sales of wedding flowers increasing by 104 percent year-on-year and dried flowers increasing by 557 percent.
In terms of entertainment consumption, China's box office revenue exceeded 2.5 billion yuan during the holiday. In addition, in many popular scenic spots and city parks, more and more young people are dressing in Hanfu for leisure and sightseeing. Hanfu-related consumption on JD has increased by 502 percent year-on-year.
The holiday economy is a window for observing consumption and even economic growth. This year's National Day holiday has submitted a promising answer.
Experts said that the fourth quarter is the traditional peak season for consumption. With the improvement in the macro economy and residents' employment, consumption growth is expected to continue to pick up. (Edited by Yang Yifan with Xinhua Silk Road, yangyifan@xinhua.org)
A single purchase
