China‘s recent nine-day Lunar New Year holiday has delivered a significant boost to domestic travel and consumer spending, successfully fulfilling government hopes that an extended break would encourage households to explore, shop, and seek entertainment.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced on Tuesday that domestic trips during the festive period soared to 596 million.
Total tourism spending reached an impressive 803.5 billion yuan ($116.81 billion). Both metrics represented an almost 19 per cent increase from the equivalent holiday period last year, which was notably one day shorter, according to Reuters’ calculations based on official ministry data.
However, domestic tourism spending per trip experienced a slight dip of 0.2 per cent.
Major scenic sites across the country, from the iconic Great Wall in Beijing to the unique Danxia landform in Guangdong, were packed with visitors. Even smaller, more remote villages in Fujian saw an influx of tourists, drawn by traditional folk activities such as “you shen”, a vibrant parade honouring local deities.
The intense demand was evident to individuals like Liu Jian, a 32-year-old Beijing resident, who recounted her struggle to secure tickets for a popular molten-iron fireworks display in Tangshan, a two-hour journey from the capital.
“The ticket is 98 yuan, way more than the usual 38, but they’ve got tons of Spring Festival-only shows, so it’s popular. The tickets are gone the second they go on sale, and I just can’t get one,” she explained.
In Sichuan province, the Jiuzhaigou scenic area said it received 182,700 visitors during the Spring Festival through February 23, an increase of 17.7 per cent from last year’s holiday.
Similarly, Zhangjiajie, a popular mountain park in central China, said via its official WeChat account that visitor numbers in the first five days of the break rose 10.27 per cent year-on-year.
Big cities also reported solid results. Shanghai authorities said the city welcomed 21.67 million visitors over the holiday, up 8.36 per cent, while tourism-related spending reached 25.6 billion yuan, up 20.9 per cent.
Beijing reported 19.84 million visitors and total tourism spending of 33.14 billion yuan.
Travel platforms said lower-tier cities and county-level destinations benefited from a search for a more traditional holiday atmosphere.
LY.COM said Guangdong emerged as a winner in “New Year flavour” trips, with hotel bookings in some destinations such as Shantou rising by more than 80 per cent from a year earlier.
Dining also performed well, with sales revenue at key catering businesses monitored by the Ministry of Commerce increasing by 5.2 per cent, compared with the holiday last year.
Hotpot chain Haidilao said it served more than 7 million customers nationwide in the first five days of the holiday, with traffic on Lunar New Year’s Eve and the first day of the new year up by more than 10 per cent from the same period last year.
Chinese-style fried chicken brand Lin Yu Fried Chicken said that the surge of people returning home for the Spring Festival boosted consumption in lower-tier markets, with its stores receiving more than 3.7 million visits during the holiday period.
One of the brand’s outlets located in a scenic areaof Rizhao in Shandong province reported order volume nearly seven times higher than on regular days.
The bright spot in travel and catering contrasted with a slump at the box office, a key holiday barometer of discretionary spending.
Several new releases saw weakening word of mouth dampening cinema attendance. Data from ticketing platform Maoyan showed Spring Festival box office takings of 5.75 billion yuan, down 39.5 per cent from a year earlier, while total admissions fell 35.8 per cent to 120 million.
