Airports are packed, China's summer tourism boom

China is enjoying a domestic tourism boom as the summer holiday season begins, with packed airports a rare bright spot in an otherwise bleak post-Covid-19 picture of the world’s second-largest economy.

Sân bay chật như 'nêm cối', Trung Quốc bùng nổ du lịch Hè

China is experiencing a domestic tourism boom as the summer holiday season begins, with airports packed with people. (Source: China Daily)

According to data from many flight tracking platforms, domestic passenger traffic has surpassed the number of the pre-Covid-19 period in late 2019. Many parents are taking their children to enjoy the first summer after 3 years of travel restrictions and lockdowns to prevent the pandemic.

Data from FlightAI, a market insights platform affiliated with online travel company Trip.com , shows, in the first 5 days of July, Nearly 9 million people flew to and from Chinese airports, up about 14% from pre-pandemic times.

Mr. He Jianmin, Professor of Tourism at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, commented: “China is witnessing the ‘lipstick effect’ in the tourism industry. That is, when consumers do not have enough money to buy high-value products such as luxury cars, villas, real estate, etc. in the context of economic recession, they will spend money on products with more moderate value such as lipstick, cosmetics or high-end tours…”.

Recent data released in recent months have raised concerns about the resilience of China’s economy after the pandemic, with challenges mainly coming from a decline in domestic and foreign investment, a decline in exports, while the real estate market continues to be gloomy.

According to Chinese government data, domestic tourism had seen annual growth of 8-10% prior to 2019, with around 6 billion trips recorded.

China is a huge market for the global aviation industry, accounting for 9% of total international air passenger demand before the pandemic, according to the International Air Transport Association.

However, fluctuations in the world situation such as the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the global economic recession... are factors that make many Chinese tourists consider traveling abroad. Therefore, according to statistics from the flight tracking application Hangban Guanjia, the number of international flights operated weekly is only 46% of the pre-pandemic level.

“Domestic travel agencies need more time to reconnect with foreign partners, many of whom may have stopped operations after the impact of the pandemic. The entire Chinese tourism industry needs to be restructured,” said an industry expert.

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