Transformative gains of China's holiday travel

Editor's note: Hannan Hussain, a special commentator on current affairs for CGTN, is a senior expert at Initiate Futures, an Islamabad-based policy think tank. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

The significance of the travel boom during China's National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holidays, from October 1 to 8, is undeniable. Chinese tourists took 888 million domestic trips over the eight-day holiday, generating more than 809 billion yuan (about $113.23 billion) in tourism revenue and nearly 1.84 billion yuan at the box office.

The volume demonstrates the robust domestic demand within the market and effectively reinforces the World Bank's 4.8 percent revised economic growth forecast for China this year. Legions of visitors have flocked to tourist hotbeds, including historic cultural holdovers in Nanjing, the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River and scores of Chinese cities. This is travel dynamism in action.

And so, with the country's super holiday period now concluded, the substantive transformation of China's travel sector merits attention. It offers an inside look into China's holiday season growth, the domestic and international appeal of its consumer offerings, and the dynamism that has come to define China's status as a culturally robust, rapidly globalized tourist hotspot.

According to China's National Immigration Administration, cross-border passenger flows are over 16.34 million, meaning more than 2.04 million trips each day on average, during the eight-day holiday, witnessing an 11.5 percent increase year on year and capturing substantial domestic demand and its foreign appeal. The surge in holiday visits also has a historic trend: The current surge involves year-on-year increases in China's multimodal transportation trips, with noticeable visitor demand evident across railways, civil aviation and waterways.

These advancements provide fertile ground for China's tourism sector to further advance rapid accessibility and the use of smart technology to cater to growing segments of visitors. The incentives for expansion reflect in future connectivity demand across top visit destinations spanning Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and a vibrant cluster of smaller, culturally-rich destinations.

There is evidence to suggest that the mountainous valleys of Jiuzhaigou and the countryside allure of Pingtan have already become top contenders in China's autumn tourism surge. Their increased holiday travel appeal suggests that sprawling destinations from the north to the south of the country could also emerge as future tourist magnets, incentivizing rapid multimodal connectivity for the future.

This underscores the need to consistently evolve China's multimodal transportation system, one that has undergone significant transformations with the Xi'an-Yan'an high-speed railway. Moreover, to the country's credit, a wide variety of high-altitude sightseeing technologies and city-to-city shuttles have facilitated cross-regional tourism traffic to remarkable effect.

Add to this the multipronged policy support that underpins the tourism sector's transport and consumer offerings, and we understand that China is well-prepared to welcome further travel demand in the future. Efforts to enhance supply, innovate consumption forms and strengthen cross-sector integration will unleash diverse consumption potential further, noted a spokesperson for China's Ministry of Commerce recently, according to Xinhua.

Interestingly, the surge in China's cultural festivities also remains a hallmark of this year's National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holiday travel. Over 12,000 cultural events occupied center stage during the period, with traditional Chinese calligraphy, night-time river cruises and traditional poetry striking a telling contrast to the modern shopping, spending and sports-related consumption across several Chinese metropolises.

Large-scale conventions are known to draw tens or even hundreds of thousands of visitors, exemplifying China's status as a cultural travel powerhouse. With major retail and catering ventures clocking year-on-year sales growth of 2.7 percent during the holiday season, steady holiday consumption suggests China has considerable potential to accelerate its future travel rush.

Narrow down to Beijing, the city alone catered to a staggering 119,000 overseas arrivals during the holiday period, with total spending reaching 1.23 billion yuan. These numbers are a microcosm of the drastic surge in inbound tourism evident across the country.

China's holiday season cultural offerings and transportation strengths should also be seen as the result of concerted policy efforts to bring consumption to remarkably high levels. This includes local government support for an innovative credit-based travel program that has streamlined accommodation and ticket reservations for legions of tourists. The resulting convenience in delaying upfront payments demonstrates the policy's sensitivity to visitor demands.

Thus understood, the economic, policy and cultural determinants of China's holiday travel are proof of a fast-expanding tourism sector. As the eight-day holiday period demonstrated, substantial traffic has been met with innovative transportation networks, a wide variety of festivities and a concerted focus on bolstering consumption through policy measures – months in advance.

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