China reported an increase in tourism revenue during the five-day May holiday, but per-trip spending remained lower than a year earlier, reflecting prolonged weak domestic demand.
Tourism revenues in China during the Labor Day holiday, which ended Tuesday, rose 2.9% from a year earlier to 185.5 billion yuan, equivalent to $27.3 billion, while the number of domestic trips rose 3.6% from a year earlier, said the Ministry of Culture and Tourism on late Thursday.
However, growth in both tourism revenue and traveler numbers was slower than during the Lunar New Year holiday.
Spending per trip during the five-day holiday fell to 571 yuan this year from 574 yuan per trip in 2025, according to Wall Street Journal calculations based on official data.
"This points again to fragile consumer sentiment: households are willing to travel but hesitate to open their wallets," Xiangrong Yu, an economist at Citigroup, said in a note.
The increases of tourism revenue and traveler numbers were volume-led rather than price-led as the per-capita spending remained 10.7% below the 2019 levels, before China's economy was hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, Yu said.
Spending during China's public holidays is closely watched by markets as an important indicator of consumer confidence.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
05-07-26 2248ET
