Chinese tourists expected to spend nearly $1 trillion on holidays at home

By K. Oanh Ha

Chinese tourists embarking on adventures closer to home are forecast to pump a record 6.79 trillion yuan ($938 billion) into the mainland economy this year — topping pre-pandemic levels for the first time.
 

Spending by domestic holidaymakers is expected to be 11 per cent higher than 2019 — before the Covid 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 travelers. In 2019, Chinese travelers made 170 million trips abroad and spent almost $248 billion overseas — making up 14 per cent of global tourism spending, according to World Travel and Tourism Council data.

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

Meanwhile, international visitors to China still haven’t rebounded. Spending by foreign tourists on the mainland this year is expected to hit 715 billion yuan, about a quarter below 2019 levels. China was one of the last big economies to re-open its borders and inbound flights to the country haven’t fully returned. 

In recent months, China has loosened visa restrictions for visitors from Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, along with some European countries and cruise ship passengers, in a bid to boost both inbound tourism and investment. At the beginning of the year, Beijing said it had eased visa requirements for 11 countries since July 2023. 

China reported 82 million tourist arrivals last year — 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 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 this year, about 2 per cent below 2019, according to the report.