Intermoney | In the Asian giant, the first figures we saw for Golden Week in early October once again highlight the sluggishness of Chinese domestic demand. It is true that domestic tourist trips reached 888 million, up from 765 million in the same week in 2024, but this was because there was an extra public holiday this year. The key figure for assessing the strength of demand is the average spending per traveller, which reached 911 yuan ($113.52), a decrease of 0.55% compared to the same period last year, remaining 3% below pre-pandemic levels, which means that, in more than five years, consumption levels have been unable to recover.
In fact, preliminary information from industry surveys suggests that, in the face of low demand, prices for services such as accommodation and catering have fallen substantially. According to information from H World Group, which manages more than 12,000 hotels, it was noted that smaller cities, and therefore those with lower prices, experienced the highest demand for stays. Similarly, it was observed that a significant proportion of travellers decided to travel before or after the official Golden Week period this year to ensure lower prices.
