Domestic travel shows strong growth in H1

Domestic tourism in China hit record highs in the first half of this year, with both trips and spending posting simultaneous growth — a performance experts said underscores cultural and tourism consumption as one of the most resilient and dependable pillars of the nation's economy.

Domestic residents made 3.46 billion trips in the January-June period, up 5.4 percent year-on-year, with an increase of 178 million trips compared with the same period last year. Total spending reached 3.21 trillion yuan ($475.7 billion), up 2 percent from a year earlier, according to data released on Friday by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Urban residents accounted for 2.59 billion trips, up 5.8 percent year-on-year, while rural residents made 869 million trips, a 4.3 percent increase. Quarter-by-quarter, trips reached 1.9 billion in the first quarter, up 6 percent, and 1.56 billion in the second quarter, up 4.8 percent.

Urban residents spent 2.66 trillion yuan, up 2.2 percent, while rural residents spent 560 billion yuan, up 0.6 percent, in the first half of the year.

Yin Ping, a professor at Beijing Jiaotong University's School of Economics and Management, said that the growth of both trips and spending showed that the cultural and tourism industry has entered a new stage of high-quality development across the board, fully demonstrating the sector's health and sustainability as a pillar of the national economy.

Deng Ning, professor and vice-dean at Beijing International Studies University's School of Tourism Sciences, said the growth signaled a recovery in per capita tourism consumption, marking a transition from recovery-driven growth to quality-driven growth.

It showed that tourists are willing to pay more for better experiences, dispelling earlier concerns about "stingy travel" or "budget tourism", he said.

Meanwhile, tourism is transitioning from a discretionary expense to a lifestyle necessity, he said. With 3.46 billion trips, the average Chinese resident traveled more than twice in the first half of the year. Weekend mini-vacations, city walks and trips for concerts or sports events have become an integral part of daily life, he said.

Moreover, from soccer tournaments to museum enthusiasm and immersive light-and-shadow exhibitions, new offerings are creating new demand, Deng added.

The 869 million trips made by rural residents represented one of the most strategically significant factors in the first half, according to Deng.

He identified three concurrent patterns of the tourism market shifting from urban to rural areas: tourists from first- and second-tier cities flowing to counties and villages for affordability and relaxation; tourism consumption being activated among residents in lower-tier cities and rural areas; and inbound tourists expanding beyond gateway cities to second- and third-tier destinations.

Data from online travel platform Tuniu showed that trips by tourists from third-tier and below cities grew more than 40 percent year-on-year in the first half, while trips from fifth-tier and county-level cities surged over 58 percent.

Inbound tourism also gained significant momentum. Foreign visitor arrivals reached 22.91 million in the first half, up 20.4 percent year-on-year, with visa-free entries accounting for 77.7 percent of the total, according to the National Immigration Administration.

Data from travel platform Qunar showed that inbound flight bookings covered 160 domestic cities, with Yiwu in Zhejiang province — the "world's small commodities capital" — seeing a 62 percent surge in flight bookings by foreign travelers.

Inbound visitors came from 575 cities across 158 countries and regions, with 11 new countries added compared with the same period last year.

Yin attributed the inbound recovery to continued visa facilitation, better products and services, and an improved travel environment, noting that it also pressured the industry to upgrade and align fully with global best practices.