China’s home tourism trade on the right track for ‘orderly restoration’

China’s domestic tourism industry on the way to an “orderly recovery”

The Ching Ming Festival increases travel and box office income

People decorate a grave in a Beijing cemetery on Monday on Tomb Sweeping Day or Ching Ming Festival. (Reuters Photo)

HONG KONG: A triple-digit percentage increase in the number of trips taken in China over the past three-day weekend suggests an “orderly recovery” in the domestic tourism industry, further underscoring the post-coronavirus recovery in the world’s second largest economy.

The Ching Ming Festival, better known as Tomb-Sweeping Day, took place in China on Monday. According to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, 102 million trips were recorded over the extended three-day weekend.

This represents a year-over-year increase of 144.6%, while tourism income rose 229% year-over-year to 27.2 billion yuan (130 billion baht), although the percentage increase was partly due to the low comparative basis from the same period The previous year is due to the year in which the coronavirus pierced the world’s second largest economy.

In terms of pre-coronavirus scores, the number of trips registered was 94.5% while tourism income was 56.7%.

“The domestic tourism market is on the way to an orderly recovery. At the moment, short-haul travel is a big part and there are many ticket waivers. It still takes some time to get back to normal,” the Ministry of Culture and Tourism said, according to various state media .

China’s overall transportation system carried 145 million passengers during the three-day vacation, an increase of 142% over the previous year, with 4.3 million passengers traveling by air, according to the Ministry of Transportation.

Tourism was one of the hardest hit sectors as lockdowns, a widespread measure in China to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, disrupted travel plans and the sector’s revenues fell 61.1% over the past year.

Domestic travel in China is now largely subject to few restrictions, as the vast majority of citizens can provide health barcodes and the nationwide immunization program is well underway despite a recent flare-up in cases in Ruili, a town on the Myanmar border.

This has led to strong growth in consumption and entertainment. Box office receipts exceeded 800 million yuan (3.8 billion baht) over the long weekend, a record for the holiday.

On Tuesday the Caixin / Markit Services Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) also rose to 54.3 in March, its highest level since December, from 51.5 in February, underscoring the sector’s recovery.

“The fall and winter Covid-19 flare-ups have basically subsided, and the service sector has rebounded quickly as supply and demand have grown,” said Wang Zhe, senior economist at Caixin Insight Group.

Beijing is looking for such holidays to boost consumption, which is lagging behind the recovery in manufacturing.

China’s retail sales rose again by 33.8% in the first two months of the year, again due to the low comparative basis. Mizuho Securities expects to see a 27% increase in March when the numbers are released later this month.

“We were looking for a solid rebound in China’s economic indicators in March. Aside from the favorable seasonality, business sentiment has also helped the major infrastructure and manufacturing investment projects featured in China’s 14th five-year development plan starting this year,” said the economist at Mizuho Securities Serena Zhou.