{"id":13700,"date":"2024-02-20T06:30:34","date_gmt":"2024-02-20T06:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/?p=13700"},"modified":"2024-02-20T12:00:25","modified_gmt":"2024-02-20T12:00:25","slug":"what-trends-emerged-from-lunar-new-year-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/what-trends-emerged-from-lunar-new-year-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"What trends emerged from Lunar New Year 2024?"},"content":{"rendered":"

China welcomed in the Lunar New Year on Saturday, 10 February, marking the start of the auspicious Year of the Dragon.<\/h3>\n

During the eight-day-long holiday, also known as Spring Festival, tourism revenues surged to \u2013 and even surpassed \u2013 pre-pandemic levels, providing a welcome boost to China\u2019s beleaguered economy.<\/p>\n

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According to data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, overall domestic tourism spending increased 7.7% compared to 2019 (and 47.3% compared to 2023, when zero Covid restrictions had only just been relaxed), although Reuters estimated that the average spend per trip decreased by around RMB 100 compared to 2019, suggesting that Chinese tourists are keeping a tighter grip on their spending.<\/p>\n

International travel also rebounded to 90% of 2019 levels, with Singapore and Malaysia proving particularly popular having recently allowed visa-free travel<\/a> for most Chinese citizens.<\/p>\n

Amid overall rising tourism numbers, media highlighted a number of specific holiday-related trends.<\/p>\n

Reuters reported that Chinese tourists are increasingly abandoning group tours and shopping-focused holidays in favour of independently-planned, active, adventurous, and experience-based trips. Nevertheless, for domestic tourists, shopping was still high on the agenda, with Hainan<\/a> reporting a record RMB 2.49 billion (\u00a3274.6 million) of duty-free spending during the holiday. That amounts to an average spend of over RMB 8,000 (\u00a3882) per person.<\/p>\n