China tourism set for ‘new phase’ of strengthening in coming months, but will travellers tap into savings?
- Household savings in China increased by 17.4 per cent last year – the biggest increase since 2010, according to a new research note
- China Tourism Academy expects domestic tourists to take 4.55 billion trips this year, marking a huge increase from the zero-Covid ravaged 2022
With its restrictive zero-Covid policy in the rear-view mirror, China is expecting its tourism market to flourish this year, but analysts appear to be taking a less optimistic outlook for consumer spending in light of a massive swelling in household savings that has not been seen in more than a decade.
Domestic tourism revenue in 2023 could reach around 4 trillion yuan (US$582 billion), which would represent a year-on-year increase of around 95 per cent, recovering to around 71 per cent of what was spent in 2019, according to a forecast by the China Tourism Academy on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the number of domestic trips taken this year is expected to reach 4.55 billion, which would be a year-on-year increase of 80 per cent from the 2.53 billion trips taken last year, according to the academy.
Meanwhile, the number of inbound and outbound trips could climb to more than 90 million, which would be nearly a third of the annual pre-pandemic total.
“It is expected that the tourism market will enter a new phase of expected strengthening in the second quarter, and the summer vacation season is expected to usher in a full recovery,” the report said.
China’s big three airlines – China Eastern, China Southern, and Air China – appear to have already fully recovered, as they are now operating with more domestic seat capacity than they were in February 2019, according to monthly figures by travel data provider OAG.
