China’s beleaguered hotels use live-streaming, steep discounts to tempt Labour Day holiday travellers wary of coronavirus

From live streaming to offering steep discounts, hotels in China are pulling out all the stops to attract travellers for the upcoming Labour Day public holiday, which will be a key indicator of the extent of the recovery in consumer confidence.

But they may have their work cut out.

So-called revenge spending – a new Chinese term coined to describe the potential spending sprees of cooped-up consumers coming out of quarantine – is unlikely to happen, some analysts say, as government disease prevention controls remain tight in many places and people remain wary of the coronavirus.

The five-day break, also dubbed the “mini golden week”, starts on May 1 and is the first extended public holiday since the Covid-19 pandemic broke out in late January from central China. The government in November lengthened it to five days from the original three to stimulate consumption and encourage travelling amid a slowing economy weighed down by the trade war.

“We are cautiously optimistic based on customers’ booking behaviour,” said Jolyon Bulley, chief executive of InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG)’s Greater China region. IHG operates 470 hotels across China.

“Customers are making bookings closer to their travel dates, with the majority of leisure travel hotel bookings made no earlier than a week, and many even booked just one day before or on the same day. This reflects an obvious wait-and-see sentiment.”

The public health crisis has killed over 4,600 people in China and plunged the hotel industry into an abyss. Those working in the sector now hold their most pessimistic outlook on record, according to a survey of 685 respondents by tourism industry consultancy Horwath HTL carried out in February.