Surging numbers: People at Shanghai Railway Station ahead of the Golden Week holiday in China. Recovery of travel from China is a critical factor for global tourism. — Bloomberg
Beijing: More Chinese are headed to Europe and other far-flung hotspots during the Golden Week holiday that sees hundreds of millions in the country on the move, in the most robust signs of a travel rebound since the country re-opened its borders.
Bookings for overseas flights and hotels have spiked from last year’s holiday week, with international flight reservations doubling and Europe showing some of the biggest growth, according to Qunar and Trip.com, among the biggest online travel agencies in China.
Overseas car rental bookings have surged by more than 150% from 2023, while cruise vacations have spiked seven-fold, according to Fliggy, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s travel unit.
Asian destinations from Japan to Malaysia are favoured during the week-long holiday that starts today, while some of the fastest-growing bookings are to long-haul spots including Belgium, Croatia, Nordic countries as well as the United Arab Emirates.
“We expect an October Golden Week that will come closer than any previous Chinese holiday period since the country’s reopening to meeting pre-pandemic levels,” according to a report by Dragon Trail International, which tracks travel sentiment and trends in the country.
The recovery of overseas tourism from China is a critical metric for the global travel industry.
Chinese holidaymakers, known for outspending tourists from most other countries before the pandemic, made 170 million trips abroad in 2019 and spent almost 1.7 trillion yuan or about US$242.2bil – making up 14% of global tourism spending, according to World Travel and Tourism Council data.
While international travel from China hasn’t fully recovered, airlines have allocated about 1.6 million seats on overseas flights from the mainland for Oct 1 through Oct 7 – about 20% below pre-pandemic levels, according to a Bloomberg analysis of Cirium flight data.
Meanwhile, air ticket data from flight analytics firm ForwardKeys shows an even smaller gap for flight demand compared to 2019.
Growth to some overseas destinations, particularly those with visa-free policies, is particularly striking, said Nan Dai, China market analyst at ForwardKeys.
Malaysia’s capital city of Kuala Lumpur has seen a 142% increase in visitors compared with pre-pandemic levels, as well as double-digit growth to Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore where visa-free initiatives have boosted tourism, according to ForwardKeys.
With over-tourism a challenge in many tourism hotspots, Chinese tourists are shifting from big group tours to solo or couple trips to less-trafficked locations during this holiday. — Bloomberg
