Road Trips to Dominate as China Gears Up for National Holiday

By Zou Xiaotong and Wang Xintong

Travelers are expected to take a record 340 million trips across China on Oct. 1, kicking off an eight-day holiday expected to jolt the nation’s flagging consumer spending.

The forecast was part of a broader outlook from the Ministry of Transport, which said the combined National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival break would generate 2.36 billion trips in total. Daily trips are projected to grow 3.2% year-on-year, though moderating from the 3.9% expansion seen last year, Vice Minister Li Yang said at a press briefing Sunday.

Road trips will dominate, accounting for roughly 80% of all travel and fueling a boom in car rentals, Li said. A significant share of these journeys will be made by new-energy vehicles.

Other sectors show a more mixed picture. Rail travel is expected to see average daily passenger volume drop 2.7% from the same period last year, according to the National Railway Administration. In contrast, the aviation sector anticipates a 3.6% increase in air travelers, with daily passenger trips potentially surpassing the summer’s record of 2.56 million, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

After a summer of falling prices, domestic airfares are ticking up. According to aviation data provider Flight Master, the average pre-sold, tax-inclusive ticket price for the holiday stood at 882 yuan ($124) on Thursday, up 4.8% from last year. An industry source told Caixin the market is heading for a trend of “rising volume with stable prices,” noting that carriers are not blindly adding capacity and are adhering to industry self-regulatory pacts, which is helping mitigate downward pressure on fares.

International travel continues its steady recovery, with airlines expected to operate at 94.1% of their 2019 levels during the holiday, according to Flight Master. The majority of these flights are concentrated in East and Southeast Asia, with Japan, South Korea and Thailand remaining the top destinations. CAAC chief pilot Xiong Jie noted that optimized visa and payment policies, as well as improved cross-border services, are helping boost international tourism.

Contact reporter Wang Xintong (xintongwang@caixin.com) and editor Kelsey Cheng (kelseycheng@caixin.com)

caixinglobal.com is the English-language online news portal of Chinese financial and business news media group Caixin. Global Neighbours is authorized to reprint this article.

Image: Wang Anqi – stock.adobe.com