In 2023, summer tourism in China is expected to be more popular than in 2019, according to the China Tourism Academy's forecast. During July and August, when primary, middle, and college students have extended holidays, domestic tourists are estimated to reach 1.331 billion Yuan. This figure accounts for 20.18% of domestic tourist trips.
The explosive growth of summer tourism in China
The recently released "2023 Summer Travel Report" indicates that travel demand has accelerated since June, and tourism spending has continued to grow. The Dragon Boat Festival holiday in late June fueled tourism enthusiasm and marked the official start of the summer tourism season. With the demand for parent-child travel, summer travel, study tours, and leisure vacations, the summer tourism industry has seen explosive growth and is expected to peak in late July.
According to recent data, people in first-tier cities are more interested in traveling this summer. Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen consumers accounted for over 35% of the total trips. The most popular tourist destinations for summer vacation in 2023 include cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Hefei, Tianjin, Wuhan, and Chengdu. These cities are at the forefront of this list.
It's worth noting that the domestic long-distance travel market is showing a surge in demand due to this being the first summer vacation with smooth travel in recent years. According to the data, domestic long-distance travel accounts for 51% of summer tourism consumption, significantly more than peripheral travel. Regarding popular domestic destinations, Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Sanya, Zhuhai, Chengdu, Lijiang, Xi'an, and Dali are among the top-ranked.
This summer, the heat is not the only thing rising. The summer travel market is also booming. Popular domestic destinations like Yunnan, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Guizhou, Gansu, and Qinghai are experiencing a significant increase in long-distance travel demand. The peak passenger flow has already started before summer vacation arrives. In addition to these, Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, and other theme parks, destinations related to cultural and museum tourism, and "net celebrity" destinations such as Weihai, Zibo, and Qiandongnan are also experiencing high levels of enthusiasm this summer.
In addition, since the summer vacation, outbound travel popularity has also ushered in a substantial increase, showing trends such as earlier peak bookings and more popular in-depth travel products. Hong Kong and Macau have maintained high travel enthusiasm and are the leading destinations for mainland Chinese travelers to travel abroad.
Besides Hong Kong and Macau, many other countries are popular for outbound Chinese tourists, including Thailand, the Maldives, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, France, Switzerland, New Zealand, and the United Arab Emirates. On August 10th, the third batch of countries and regions that resumed outbound group tours were announced. The government has been proactive in repairing the outbound supply chain. It has fostered cooperation with overseas hotels and local travel agencies and developed outbound business tour agencies.
