Chinese travel more during Dragon Boat holiday but spending lags
China's Dragon Boat Festival took place from May 31 to June 2, 2025 and was celebrated throughout the country with local dragon boat races. (EPA Images pic)
HONG KONG : Chinese people travelled more over the three-day Dragon Boat holiday this year, but spending remained below pre-pandemic levels, government data showed today, indicators that are closely watched as barometers of consumer confidence.
Consumption in the world's second-largest economy has suffered amid sputtering growth and a prolonged property crisis, with uncertainty from the US-China trade war also weighing on consumer confidence.
The latest data painted a mixed picture for China's consumer economy.
Tourists took an estimated 119 million domestic journeys from Friday to Monday, up 5.7% from the same holiday period last year, according to the tourism and culture ministry.
Overall spending over the period rose to ¥42.73 billion (US$5.94 billion, a year-on-year increase of 5.9%, but the average amount spent per traveller was a little under ¥360 (US$50), according to Reuters calculations, remaining stubbornly below 2019 levels of around ¥410 per trip.
The annual festival took place from May 31 to June 2 this year and is celebrated throughout the country with local dragon boat races.
Many people take the opportunity to have short holidays, crowding train stations and airports around the country.
Overall, more than 653.7 million inter-regional trips across all regions in China, which include tourist trips, were made during the three-day holiday, up 2.5% year-on-year, state media Xinhua reported today, and road travel was up 2.4% from last year with 597.3 million trips recorded.
Cross-border journeys rose 2.7% to 5.9 million, with 231,000 foreign nationals entering the country visa-free during the holiday.
China has been expanding its visa policy, with citizens of 43 countries granted visa-free access, while visa-free transit for up to 240 hours in China is available for 54 countries.
Chinese also boosted spending on entertainment over the holiday, with cinema box office revenue reaching ¥460 million (US$63.9 million), surpassing last year's ¥384 million, according to data from online ticketing platform Maoyan.
Tom Cruise's latest movie 'Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning' topped charts, and generated ¥228 million, half of the total revenue during the holiday period, which was seen as a positive indicator for the upcoming summer season.
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