China rides high on domestic tourism wave as 2023 revenues reach pre-coronavirus pandemic levels
- Chinese tourists took enough trips to bring 2023 revenue back to its pre-pandemic benchmark, exceeding even rosy government forecasts
- Recovery largely driven by pent-up demand and domestic travel, with inbound figures still lagging despite incentives
China’s primary tourism benchmarks are expected to return to their pre-pandemic levels by the end of this year – a rebound largely driven by domestic demand, as inbound travel has yet to see a similar recovery.
Tourism revenue was forecast to reach 5.2 trillion yuan (US$724.8 billion) in 2023 – 91 per cent of the figure from 2019 – and total trips were predicted to reach 90 per cent of that year’s corresponding sum by the China Tourism Academy (CTA), a research institution under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, in a report published on Tuesday.
This was largely driven by a rebound in demand suppressed by a three-year pandemic policy
“Thanks to multiple supportive policies, China’s tourism market is recovering steadily in 2023, and tourist arrivals and spending are showing bright results,” said the report, as cited by state news service Xinhua.
Once a major economic contributor – accounting for 11.05 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product in 2019 – recovery in the tourism sector is something of a bellwether for Beijing’s efforts to revitalise the job market and stimulate consumption.
“Domestic tourism recovered significantly better than market expectations, but this was largely driven by a rebound in demand suppressed by a three-year pandemic policy,” said Lin Huanjie, dean of the Institute for Theme Park Studies in China. “It is hard to sustain this growth into next year.
“China’s domestic tourism will recover, at most, to a similar level as 2019 next year.”
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