China’s economy gets a temporary boost as holiday travel returns to pre-pandemic levels

Beijing, Oct. 9 (BNA): Chinese tourists jammed popular sites as travel bounced back to pre-pandemic levels during a recent eight-day national holiday, giving a temporary boost to China’s economy.

China maintained lockdowns and other restrictions much longer than most other countries, enforcing a “zero-COVID” policy until last December.

The government said that tourism revenues reached about 753 billion yuan ($103 billion) during the combined Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday period, a rise of 1.5% over 2019 and 130% compared to last year when pandemic restrictions were still in place.

Planes and high-speed trains were heavily booked over the holiday. The tourism ministry said that 826 million domestic trips were made, up 4.1% from 2019 and 71.3% from last year, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

China’s border authorities processed 11.8 million entries and exits during the recent holiday, a nearly three-fold increase over last year when people entering China still faced mandatory quarantine, but only 85% of the total in 2019, the National Immigration Administration said.

Booking agency Trip.com said that outbound travel volume during the holiday was more than eight times higher than in 2022.

 

 

R.S.