Dragon Boat holiday boosts tourism, consumption in China

China saw 106 million domestic trips during the Duanwu (Dragon Boat Festival) holiday from June 22 to 24, up 32.3 percent year-on-year, which was 112.8 percent of that over the same period in 2019 on a comparable basis, yicai.com reported on Sunday, quoting data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

The three-day holiday registered a year-on-year revenue increase of 44.5 percent in terms of domestic traveling, raking in 37.31 billion yuan ($5.19 billion) which is 94.9 percent over the same period of 2019 on a comparable basis.

Data from online travel agency ly.com showed bookings of air tickets, hotels and gate tickets for scenic spots during the Duanwu holiday all surpassed those over the same period in 2019. The tourists visiting those domestic scenic spots grew over 30 percent compared with that during the Duanwu holiday in 2019.

Alibaba's travel portal Feizhu also said in a travel report on this year's Duanwu that domestic travel services, including bookings of air tickets, hotels, short-distant and medium-long-distant travels, continued with their recovering momentum since early this year. Bookings during this Duanwu exceeded that of 2019's Duanwu.

Cnr.cn reported that data from the Ministry of Commerce showed the sales of folk customs and upgraded goods increased significantly during the holiday. The sales of zongzi (seaweed wrapped rice balls) increased by 64.3 percent; gold and silver jewelry as well as sporting goods sales increased by 13.6 percent and 3.4 percent on a yearly basis, respectively. Leisure consumption such as dining, movie and exhibitions viewing, water parks and camping continued to increase in popularity, with a year-on-year growth of 18.5 percent.

In addition, night-time economy boomed. According to a special survey by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, affected by high temperatures and the continuous enrichment of night tourism products at destinations, the proportion of tourists participating in night trips during the Duanwu holiday reached 22.3 percent, a significant increase of 7.9 percentage points over the same period in 2022. According to the data monitoring, during the Dragon Boat Festival, the night passenger flow of 243 national night cultural and tourism consumption agglomeration areas was 36.253 million, with an average of 49,700 per night per agglomeration area, an increase of 38.8 percent over the same period in 2022.

Feng Rao, dean of the tourism research academy at Mafengwo - a travel services and social networking platform -, said the Duanwu holiday is considered the pulse of the summer tourism market. Considering the performance of the industry during the holiday, he expects travel to boom over the summer and for the nation's tourism industry to continue to recover.