China’s National Day holiday travel bookings recover markedly

China’s tourism industry is expected to continue to recover back towards its pre-COVID levels during the upcoming National Day holiday, as shown in statistics published by several online travel agencies (OTA).

The recovery of China’s tourism sector has already been largely reflected in statistics for the country’s just-concluded Mid-Autumn Festival holiday.

According to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, a total of 88.16 million domestic trips were made during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday this year, which, comparatively speaking, has returned to 87.2 percent of the pre-COVID level in 2019. Meanwhile, domestic tourism revenue during this period reached 37.15 billion yuan ($ 5.75 billion), about 78.6 percent of the 2019 figure.

The "2021 National Day Golden Week Travel Trend Report" released by ly.com, a travel booking platform, indicated that the number of domestic trips will exceed 650 million during this year's National Day holiday, about 80 percent of the level during the same period in 2019.

Statistics from fliggy.com, another travel booking platform in China, indicated that in the past week, bookings for air tickets, hotels, accommodation, excursions, long-distance tours and car rentals all jumped by more than 100 percent month-on-month during the National Day holiday.

A recently-released report by Ctrip, China’s largest online travel platform, also showed that, as of Sept. 21, the number of tickets booked through the agency for scenic spots during the National Day holiday soared by 30 percent year-on-year.

"The consumption of culture-themed travel during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday and the National Day holiday generally accounts for more than 5 percent of the whole year. This is a very salient feature of China’s tourism sector," said Zou Guangyong, a professor with the Shanghai Business School.