China logged a welcome uptick in spending on services during the just-concluded eight-day “super Golden Week” public holiday, as the country’s transport hubs handled record numbers of passengers.
Chinese transport authorities logged 2.432 billion passenger trips – a record high and a 6.2% year-on-year increase – during this year’s extended holiday, which combined the National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations.
The surge was mainly driven by overlapping demand for tourism and family visits, as well as recent improvements to China’s transport network, the Ministry of Transport said in a statement released on Thursday.
The number of passengers taking rail, air and boat trips rose by 2.6%, 3.4% and 4.2%, respectively, during this year’s Golden Week, with travel concentrated in urban clusters such as the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Greater Bay Area and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the ministry said.
Consumers also spent more than last year during the holiday, data from the State Taxation Administration indicated. Daily average sales revenues in consumption-related industries were up 4.5% year on year, according to the latest value-added tax invoice data, the body said.
Spending on services increased by 7.6% compared with the same period last year, while goods sales grew by a more modest 3.9%, according to the data.
The uptick was largely driven by the fact that this year’s Golden Week was unprecedentedly long, with the longer holiday creating a multiplier effect for service consumption, Minsheng Securities said in a research note on Thursday.
“Meanwhile, unprecedented subsidies (from online platforms and merchants) further fuelled service consumption,” it said, citing Amap’s decision to release 100 million yuan (460 million baht) of coupons every day during the holiday.
Amap – one of China’s leading online navigation tools – is owned by Alibaba Group Holding, which also owns the South China Morning Post.
But the research report also noted that despite the high spending figures, Chinese households remain reluctant to splash out on big-ticket items, instead favouring value-for-money options.
The tax invoice data showed relatively rapid growth in spending on digital products and automobiles compared with last year’s holiday, while demand for tourism, arts, culture and sports activities remained robust. Consumption in the catering sector maintained “steady” growth, the tax administration said.
Sales in key retail and catering industries grew 2.7% year on year during the eight-day holiday period, a slight decline from the 4.5% growth recorded during last year’s holiday, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce.
In the tourism sector, overseas tourism stood out as a highlight. WeChat Pay, a major Chinese digital payment service, reported a 21% year-on-year increase in cross-border payments during the holiday.
Japan, South Korea and Thailand remained the top international destinations for mainland tourists this Golden Week, according to WeChat Pay.
Alipay, another major Chinese digital payment service, said the top five destinations for spending by outbound Chinese tourists via Alipay on Oct 1-3 were Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore.
Greece, Laos, Nepal, Portugal and Turkey saw the fastest growth in Alipay spending by Chinese visitors, the platform said.
Visa-free policies for Chinese citizens in countries including South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand appear to have boosted visitor numbers, with WeChat Pay transactions up 46% year on year in South Korea and 32% in Singapore.
Inbound tourism also showed an upwards trend. During the first five days of the holiday, the average number of inbound tourists using WeChat’s mini apps per day was up over 60% year on year, according to the platform.
Shanghai recorded a seven-fold surge in the number of tax refund applications submitted by foreign tourists compared with last year’s holiday, after authorities expanded the refund programme earlier this year.
Hong Kong residents also took advantage of the holiday to visit the mainland. WeChat Pay HK logged a 120% year-on-year surge in transactions by Hong Kong residents on the mainland during this year’s holiday, with spending on e-commerce services, pet services and courier services rising fastest.
“Many friends and colleagues I know travelled during the holiday, but were quite prudent in spending,” said Julie Zhou, a Guangzhou-based barista in her 20s.