China’s Golden Week travel boom masks fierce price war

BEIJING — The latest signs of hypercompetition, or “entrainment,” are emerging in China’s tourism industry, raising concerns about increasing deflationary pressures across the economy.

The total number of domestic tourism trips during the October 1-8 holiday known as “Golden Week” reached 888 million people, and the revenue reached 809.01 billion yuan ($113.63 billion), according to official data released on Thursday. This is an increase of 1.8% and 7.6% respectively compared to last year, according to CNBC’s calculations of the figures.

However, growth slowed from the May 1-5 holiday earlier this year, when domestic travel and tourism receipts increased by 6.4% and 8%, respectively. In fact, average spending per domestic tourist trip during Golden Week was also about 3% lower than in 2019, before the pandemic, Goldman Sachs noted on Thursday.

“Golden Week was ‘Golden Week,'” said Mix Shi, founder of Poshpacker Hostels Chengdu Group.

The city’s three hostels were eventually fully booked, but Shi said they had to cut their nightly rates by about 60% as nearby hotels reduced their prices further.

“There’s so much money being poured into the hotel industry these days,” said See. “Competition is crazy and really good places are being sold at dirt cheap prices. It’s great for travelers because it gives them more choice, but it’s a big blow for hostels.”

Chengdu, the capital of southwest China’s Sichuan province, ranked second in tourism spending during the holiday after Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province in the east. Meituan Online booking platform.

According to Hostelworld, Chengdu’s popularity among domestic and foreign tourists visiting hostels in mainland China has more than doubled since last Golden Week, making it second only to Shanghai. Still, average bed prices fell by more than 20% in both cities, to 165.70 yuan ($23.27) in Shanghai and 80.99 yuan in Chengdu.

Most locals only get a few days of paid vacation a year, but China is trying to encourage companies to give workers more time off and extend public holidays to encourage spending.

This year’s Golden Week was one day longer than usual because it coincided with the Mid-Autumn Festival in the agricultural calendar. The festival was held on September 17th last year, but this year it was held on October 6th.

“The Mid-Autumn Festival is considered a family reunion festival,” said AJ Wang, owner of the X Hotel and Observatory Hill House venue in the northeastern coastal city of Qingdao.

“In terms of generating revenue, the real Golden Week actually ends on the 6th,” he said, noting that prices had to be reduced by 60% after that date due to lower demand.

According to CNBC calculations, official domestic tourism revenue for Golden Week alone increased by 15.4% from 2024, but when last year’s Mid-Autumn Festival revenue is included, comparable revenue growth slowed to 7.6%.

“Everyone is working harder and spending more, but the profit gap remains small,” said Sasa Yau, who runs a hostel and restaurant in the southern city of Guangzhou.

Yau said the restaurant’s daily sales soared from the usual 3,000 yuan to up to 10,000 yuan during Golden Week, with customers spending an average of just 30 yuan.

“We are busier than ever and have broken revenue records,” Yau said. “It’s just the four of us running the show, so at the end of the week we were all so tired and I said, ‘Let’s celebrate with a midnight snack!’ and they said, ‘Can we celebrate by sleeping in instead?'”

In Chengdu, famous for giant pandas and spicy food, travelers tend to book rooms one to two days in advance rather than one to two weeks in advance, making room rates unpredictable, Shi said.

China has an extensive network of high-speed trains and airports, and flight tickets are sometimes cheaper than train tickets, making it much easier to travel on a whim. With prices so volatile and the difficulty of booking tickets for the first or last day of a holiday, travelers should stagger their trips as much as possible to save money.

According to a Chinese travel booking site, many tourists chose to travel around the Golden Week period this year. Trip.com. Hotel prices in late September were about 20% cheaper than during Golden Week, and mid-holiday airfares were more than 30% cheaper than at the start of the holiday, the report said.

Alibaba-owned travel booking site Fliggy said the average spend per travel booking rose 14.6% year-on-year, noting that much cheaper tickets began to go on sale over the holiday weekend, including flights from Shanghai to Hong Kong for less than 400 yuan ($56).

Official figures also point to an increase in road trips, with an average of 304 million people making daily trips over the holiday, most of them by car.

“Golden Week triggered a wave of energy across China. Record travel, booming business activity and new spending trends all definitely boosted domestic demand,” said Bruce Pan, adjunct associate professor at CUHK Business School.

“Still, it may take some time for the (consumer price index) to return to positive (year-on-year) levels, as food prices and crude oil prices are still weak compared to their peaks,” he said.

China’s official consumer prices in August fell 0.4% year-on-year, but rose 0.9% excluding food and energy prices. In the tourism sub-segment, prices in August increased by 0.7% compared to the same month last year, but in January-August they fell by 0.3% compared to the same period in 2024.

The travel platform also reported increased demand in smaller cities, where prices can be much lower. Chinese reservation site Dojo City It said hotel bookings in at least 30 such cities and developing regions have more than doubled from a year ago.

China’s September inflation data will be released on October 15th, and retail sales figures will be released on October 20th. Retail sales in August rose only 3.4% from a year earlier, lower than analysts expected.