China's Domestic Travel Fell 40% During May Day Holiday

By That's GBA, May 7, 2020

While many turned down the opportunity to travel over the May Day holiday, others simply couldn’t resist.

Data published by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism shows that 115 million domestic trips were made over the five-day holiday this year, spending RMB47.6 billion on tourism-related expenditures.

The travel turnout surpassed the 80 plus million trips forecasted by Chinese travel company Trip.com prior to the holiday, but fell by more than 40% compared to last year’s 195 million domestic trips. Spending was also down by an alarming 60%, or RMB70 billion, compared to 2019 May Day holiday – which was only four days long. To offset expected losses in tourism revenue, at least 68 cities issued coupons to boost consumption, according to Chinese news outlet Jiemian.

The ministry noted that provinces around the country implemented measures for ‘intelligent travel’ (智慧旅游), namely applying mobile technology to track guest capacity at popular tourist sites to avoid large crowd gatherings.

Travelers also took the initiative to avoid big congregations, with Trip.com reporting a 10% increase in car rental reservations compared to 2019, CNBC reports.

The next public holiday to gauge how much China’s domestic tourism industry is recovering is Dragon Boat Festival, which takes place from June 25 to June 27.

[Cover image via Pixabay]