Unbeknownst to me, China's epidemic prevention policy has been adjusted for almost a year, and the domestic tourism market, which has been hit hard, is recovering at an accelerated pace to pre-epidemic levels.

On October 27, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism released domestic tourism data for the first three quarters. In the first three quarters, the total number of domestic tourists reached 3.674 billion, an increase of 75.5% over the previous year. Compared with the first three quarters of 2019, it has recovered 79.92%.

Specifically, the year-on-year growth rate of domestic tourists increased quarterly this year. From the first quarter to the third quarter, the total number of domestic tourists increased by 46.5%, 86.9%, and 101.9%, respectively.

Furthermore, in the first three quarters, residents' total domestic travel expenses were 3.69 trillion yuan, an increase of 114.4% over the previous year. Compared with the first three quarters of 2019, it has recovered 84.7%. Fangzheng Securities said that since 2023, the cultural tourism industry has been recovering significantly and continuously, and residents' demand for supplementary travel is strong.

Overall, this is a wave of recovery in the industry, which is gradually heating up. This is particularly evident during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays.

According to the data center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, during the 8-day Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays, the number of domestic travelers was 826 million, an increase of 71.3% over the previous year, an increase of 4.1% over the same period in 2019; domestic tourism revenue reached 753.43 billion yuan, an increase of 129.5% over the previous year and 1.5% over 2019.

This means that the number of domestic tourists and revenue during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays both surpassed pre-pandemic levels this year. Ctrip data also shows that during the “11th” period, the number of domestic travel orders for air tickets, hotels, tickets, etc. overall exceeded that before the epidemic, increasing nearly 2 times over the previous year, increasing 10% over the “May 1st” period, and outbound travel also increased more than 8 times over the same period last year.

This wave of recovery has also boosted the performance of cultural tourism-related companies. Up to now, nine listed cultural tourism companies, including Changbaishan, Huangshan Tourism, and Jiuhua Tourism, have turned a loss into a profit from net profit in the first three quarters, while China Investment Insurance and Lijiang Co., Ltd. have achieved net profit from the first three quarters exceeding that of last year.

What is even more exciting is that in the third quarter, China's major listed airlines, such as Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Hainan Airlines, China Airlines Holdings, Spring Airlines, Juneyao Airlines, and Huaxia Airlines, collectively lost money and achieved profit for the first time after the pandemic. The cumulative net profit of the top seven A-share listed airlines in the third quarter exceeded 17.5 billion yuan.

However, the pandemic has left a long mark on the tourism industry. Apart from constantly catching up and surpassing in terms of numbers and consumption, tourism demand has also quietly undergone some new changes.

According to Tongcheng Research Institute's “Insight into China's Travel Consumption Trends White Paper (2023 Edition)”, people are increasingly favoring low-cost, niche, and region-specific travel. The tourist destinations or experiences that are popular this year all have “affordable” characteristics, such as barbecuing in Zizi, city walks, special forces tours, etc.

In response, Zhao Yingxue, director of the Institute of Tourism Culture and Economics at Guangdong Panyu Vocational and Technical College, said that the three-year epidemic has hit all walks of life very hard. People will choose to be satisfied with food and lodging first, and then pursue spiritual pleasure such as tourism, so the unit prices and willingness to spend in the tourism industry have also been affected to a certain extent. However, from the Dragon Boat Festival to the National Day this year, the price per passenger in the tourism industry is recovering at an accelerated pace, and the future momentum is improving.

Next, the tourism industry faces the challenge of how to maintain a balance between increasing travel consumption and driving more people to travel.

This is not a problem that can be solved within the industry. Zhao Yingxue said that the number and income of the tourism industry are closely related to macroeconomics, residents' income, and consumption capacity. Judging from the number of tourists and the year-on-year growth rate, the tourism industry is already the first industry to recover. As for the willingness to spend, after a major illness, you will enter a recovery period, so you need to take good care of yourself first.

However, in any case, the domestic tourism data for the first three quarters recovered to 780% before the epidemic, which is a positive sign.

After the darkest hour, the domestic tourism industry has reached a new starting point. Although it needs to move forward with a heavy burden, there is also some more hope.

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