Chinese tourists weren’t just traveling in record-breaking numbers this past National Day holiday, but also spending like never before.
An estimated 593 million tourists traveled this past week in China during the National Day holiday, a 13 percent increase over last year, said the China National Tourism Administration.
At the same time, Chinese tourists spent 14 percent more money than last year, coming in at 482 billion yuan.
Among the six million Chinese tourists who traveled abroad during the seven-day “Golden Week”, South Korea was the top destination. Thailand received almost a third more Chinese visitors than last year, while tourism to Morocco tripled, largely due to the country removing its visa requirements.
Despite incentives like a three-day pass to Hong Kong Disneyland, mainland Chinese travel to Hong Kong continued to slump. Mainland Chinese tour groups to Hong Kong declined during the first three days of the holiday. However, total arrivals were up by five percent, which may signal a new trend of independent travelers, said Joseph Tung, executive director of the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong.
Chinese tourists were also not as keen to visit Beijing, which reported a three percent drop in visitors at 11.2 million. And yet, those that visited the Chinese capital made up for the shortfall by spending 8.4 billion yuan ($1.27 billion), an increase of one percent from last year.
Meanwhile, Shanghai was immensely popular during the holiday break, attracting 9.27 million tourists who spent 9.1 billion yuan ($1.36 billion) going to top attractions like Shanghai Disneyland and Jinjiang Amusement Park, reported the Shanghai Tourism Administration.
China’s top areas for spending during the National Day holiday were Chongqing, Sichuan and Hunan, said to have comprised the majority of the 1.2 trillion yuan ($180 billion) spent in the retail and dining sector, said the Ministry of Commerce.
Although Chinese tourists were more willing to spend this past Golden Week, they have had to contend with a number of travel hassles. Highways around the Beijing area were reportedly congested with traffic jams eight kilometers long. Friday’s travel rush at the end of the week-long National Day holiday saw 12.57 million train trips.
