China’s Golden Week tourism revenue falls 5% as COVID-19 curbs linger

Tourism revenues in China during the Golden Week holiday that ended on Thursday, October 7, fell by almost 5% year-on-year, state media reported, while lingering coronavirus curbs also saw a decline in the total number of trips undertaken.

The seven-day holiday in China from October 1 to 7 to mark National Day is one of the busiest travel periods in the country and a bellwether for consumer demand in the world’s second largest economy.

Domestic tourism revenues totaled 389.06 billion yuan ($60.36 billion), the official People’s Daily reported on Thursday, the last day of the holiday, citing data from China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

That was down 4.7% year-on-year and still under 60% of the revenues recorded in the same week before the pandemic.

China has largely contained the spread of the coronavirus since it first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.

It recorded no locally transmitted infections on Wednesday, October 6, having brought under control recent outbreaks in Fujian and Heilongjiang provinces that had seen the authorities tighten restrictions on movement of people.

The ministry also logged 515 million domestic tourist trips across China over the seven days, which represented a year-on-year decline of 1.5% and was just over 70% of pre-pandemic levels, People’s Daily said.

China goes back to work on Friday, October 8. Saturday, October 9, has also been designated as a working day. – Rappler.com

$1 = 6.4452 Chinese yuan renminbi