Holiday spending during China’s Golden Week has surged past pre-pandemic levels for the first time in three years, no Covid-related restrictions and citizens are eager to live large to make up for lost time.
Travelers made 274 million trips within mainland China during the holiday, up 71% from a year ago and 19% higher than 2019, according to data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism on Wednesday. Revenue from domestic tourism reached 148 billion yuan ($21 billion), up 129% from a year earlier and also slightly higher than 2019.
“This May Day is crazy!” was a popular hashtag on Weibo, China’s verison of Twitter.
China’s vast railway network saw a record 120 million trips made from April 27 to May 4, up 20% from the same period in 2019
The dining and retail companies jumped nearly 20% during the holiday. It’s a significant increase, as retail sales growth was just 10.6% in March.
Alipay: a 200% increase in online holiday spending from a year earlier, 70% higher than the 2019 level.
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“Revenge travel boom [is] in play,” said Citi analysts. “With the latest pulse check, China’s services recovery, especially for offline services and long-haul travels, is well on track.”
“The strong Labor Day holiday tourism data bodes well for consumption and services recovery in coming months, and adds conviction to our above-consensus 2023 GDP growth forecast [of 6%],” Goldman Sachs analysts wrote on Thursday.
But other analysts are more cautious, as signs point to an uneven recovery in the Chinese economy.
Weakness in manufacturing The Caixin/S&P Global PMI index unexpectedly shrank in April, dropping to 49.5 from 50 in March, as factories wound down production amid weak demand and high inventory levels.
Labor Resource, one in 5 young people in Chinese cities are out of work. Beijing wants them to work in the fields