China’s tourists to spend record $1.3 trillion on holidays at home

Hong Kong - Chinese tourists embarking on adventures closer to home are forecast to pump a record 6.79 trillion yuan (S$1.3 trillion) into the mainland economy in 2024 – topping pre-pandemic levels for the first time.

Spending by domestic holidaymakers is expected to be 11 per cent higher than in 2019 – before the Covid-19 pandemic stopped most travel, according to a report by the World Travel and Tourism Council and Oxford Economics.

“Chinese visitors are starting to travel again and this is only going to continue to grow,” said travel council president Julia Simpson. “The tourism sector has shown signs of resilience and a strong recovery.”

Chinese holidaymakers are

a driving force for the global tourism industry

, with many countries keenly awaiting the return of travel and spending from the world’s biggest market of travellers. In 2019, Chinese travellers made 170 million trips abroad and spent almost US$248 billion overseas – making up 14 per cent of global tourism spending, according to World Travel and Tourism Council data.

But a backlog in processing visas in countries like the US, and more expensive international flights, have kept Chinese holidaymakers closer to home, where they are flocking to cities for popular local delicacies like spicy street foods, and smaller towns in a “reverse travel” trend shunning crowds.

Meanwhile, international visitors to China still have not rebounded. Spending by foreign tourists on the mainland in 2024 is expected to hit 715 billion yuan, about a quarter below 2019 levels. China was one of the last big economies to reopen its borders, and inbound flights to the country have not fully returned.

In recent months, China has

loosened visa restrictions for visitors

from Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, along with those from some European countries and cruise ship passengers, in a bid to boost both inbound tourism and investment. At the beginning of 2024, Beijing said it had eased visa requirements for 11 countries since July 2023.

China reported 82 million tourist arrivals in 2023 – about 56 per cent of the 2019 level, according to the country’s National Bureau of Statistics. The number of visits made by people from outside of Hong Kong and Macau was just 13.8 million, lagging pre-Covid-19 figures by around 57 per cent.

And even as the country’s economy has weakened and retail spending remained sluggish, travel is one of the stronger consumption categories, according to Morgan Stanley.

The tourism and travel sector broadly supported 80 million tourism and travel jobs in 2024, about 2 per cent below 2019, according to the report. BLOOMBERG