Guangzhou (JLC), October 7, 2023 – China has witnessed a surge in domestic mobility since September 29 when the 8-day holiday kicked off, as the prolonged “Golden Week”, which combined the Mid-Autumn Festival and the National Day holiday this year, rekindled people's passion for travel and sightseeing.
Official data showed that both domestic tourists and tourism revenue increased sharply on a year-on-year basis, and even surpassed the 2019 levels.
A total of 826 million domestic tourist trips were made across China during the 8-day period, up 71.3% year on year, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism said on October 6. The figure also represented a 4.1% increase compared with 2019, it said.
Domestic tourism revenue reached about CNY753 billion (about USD103 billion) during the prolonged “Golden Week”, up 129.5% from last year and representing an increase of 1.5% from the 2019 level, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism added.
Overall mobility surges in “Golden Week”
On railway transportation, a total of 169 million trips were made through China’s railway system between September 27-October 6 (a 10-day period), with daily average volume of 16.86 million trips, according to the latest figures by China Railway Group.
About 20.10 million trips were made via railway on September 29 alone, setting an all-time high in terms of daily volume. It was also the first time the figure breached the 20 million mark, the state-owned company added.
Meanwhile, the latest data from the Ministry of Transport showed that from September 29 to October 6 (an 8-day period), the cross-regional passenger trips across the country (including commercial transportation by airplane, train and bus, as well as non-commercial transportation through national, provincial roads or expressways) reached 2.197 billion, with a daily average of approximately 275 million, a surge of 67.6% compared with the daily average in the corresponding period of 2022.
Travel agencies and industry insiders said that the tourism market saw a good recovery over the holiday and people tended to make more reasonable plans for their days off. Also, long-distance destinations were top choices for travelers during the 8-day holiday.
