BEIJING - Tourism revenues in China during the eight-day Chinese New Year holidays that ended on Feb 17 surged 47.3 per cent year on year thanks to a domestic travel boom, surpassing pre-Covid-19 levels in 2019, official data showed on Feb 18.

The data may offer temporary relief to policymakers as the world’s second-largest economy has been facing deflationary risks amid weak consumer demand, but the sustainability of the tourism boost remains uncertain.

During the holiday, known as the world’s largest annual migration, tourist attractions across the country witnessed massive crowds.

Domestic tourism spending jumped by 47.3 per cent to 632.7 billion yuan (S$120 billion) from the same holiday period in 2023, and were up 7.7 percentage points from pre-Covid-19 levels in 2019, according to the data by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

The number of domestic trips made during 2024’s holiday grew by 34.3 percentage points from a year ago, totalling 474 million, which also exceeded the pre-pandemic levels of 2019 by 19 per cent. The holiday was seven days long in 2019.

Average spending per trip during the holiday in 2024 reached 1,335 yuan, according to Reuters calculations based on the ministry data. This compared with 1,238 yuan per trip in 2019.

The ministry did not give a breakdown of the tourism spending per trip, but according to Reuters calculations based on the ministry data, average spending per trip during the holiday this year reached 1,335 yuan, down 9.5 per cent from 1,475 yuan per trip in 2019.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs said in a note on Feb 18 that domestic tourism data during the Chinese New Year holiday improved from the New Year’s holiday earlier this year and the National Day Golden Week last October, but tourism revenue per head softened and remained below the pre-pandemic level.

This suggests “consumption downgrading is still widely seen,” they said.

The holiday, also called the Spring Festival, is traditionally the time hundreds of millions of people return to their home towns by air, train or road to reunion with family members.

For international travels, China witnessed around 13.52 million inbound and outbound trips during the holiday, growing by 2.8 times from the same holiday period in 2023, according to the National Immigration Administration.

The total entry-exit trips during the holiday returned to 90 per cent of the 2019 levels, according to the administration.

Film watching has become one of the most popular entertainment activities during the holiday, with the country’s box office revenue exceeding 8 billion yuan over the eight days according to the China Film Administration, marking a new record high.

The economy has been grappling with multiple challenges including a property downturn and sluggish demand since 2023, forcing policymakers to cut interest rates to spur growth even as many developed economies were focused on taming stubbornly high inflation.

As the authorities are striking a delicate balancing act to support the economy at a time when signs of deflationary pressures call for more stimulus measures, China’s central bank left a key policy rate unchanged on Feb 18 when rolling over maturing medium-term loans. REUTERS