China’s 2024 October Holiday Travel News Roundup

Osaka in the autumn. Japan was the leading international destination for Chinese Golden Week travel, according to China Tourism Academy, Ctrip, and Mafengwo. Photo by Satoshi Hirayama from Pexels.

China’s National Day holiday aka Golden Week was a national holiday period from 1-7 October. We’ve rounded up and translated all the news and reports on Chinese outbound travel during this holiday.

As projected, outbound travel was up, and for some destinations and platforms it exceeded pre-pandemic levels. Greater China, East, and Southeast Asia accounted for the majority of trips, but recovery and growth rates were high to long-haul destinations from Egypt to the UK. Younger travelers and residents of lower-tier cities both showed significant growth and potential.

Alipay
The number of outbound transactions using Alipay grew by more than 60% compared to last year. According to data from the mobile payment platform, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Singapore were the top destinations. They noted that spending has increased most significantly on experiences, including accommodation, food and drink, and entertainment – rather than on luxury shopping. Alipay spending data also reveals that Chinese tourists are increasingly using local transport options overseas, including bus, subway, and biking sharing.

China Tourism Academy
According to the China Tourism Academy, the holiday saw 5.18 million border crossings, of which more than half were outbound trips. The most popular destinations were Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Russia, Thailand, UK, Malaysia, Singapore, and Australia. Outbound group travel was down, and the CTA notes that the diversification of travel routes, itineraries, and activities is a clear trend.

Ctrip
According to Ctrip’s Golden Week travel consumption report, outbound travel bookings surpassed 2019’s level, reaching a new high.

The top 10 international destinations were Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Indonesia, UK, USA, and Australia. The top 10 international destinations with the fastest growth rates were Brazil, Philippines, Mexico, UK, UAE, Thailand, Cambodia, Canada, Vietnam, and Portugal.

Flight capacity to destinations like Singapore and Malaysia surpassed pre-pandemic levels, bringing prices down and traveler numbers up.

Family travel accounted for 37% of outbound trips, up from 34% last year. Parent-child travelers spend significantly more than the market average, benefiting destinations.

The growth in outbound trips was highest from 4th and 5th tier cities. Meanwhile, travelers from 1st and 2nd tier cities traveled farther and spent more. The top 20 destinations list included 12 long-haul countries, accounting for 37% of outbound travel spend on Ctrip.

Looking at Golden Week travel in general, including both outbound and domestic travel, Ctrip found that Chinese travelers were looking for slower, more relaxed and experiential trips, with less rushed “daka” style travel. Growth was highest from the post-00s generation, as well as the pre-70s generation – although these “silver travelers” account for only a small proportion of travelers.

Global Blue
Global Blue’s data on tax free shopping shows that globally, mainland Chinese tax free spending was up by 32% compared to 2023’s October Golden Week. The increase for continental Europe was 24%, and the increase for Asia Pacific was 39%. The countries that saw the biggest increase in Chinese tax free shopping were South Korea (+49%) and Japan (+41%). In Europe, Spain saw the biggest increase (31%), followed by Italy (+28%). Gen-Z and millennials accounted for the majority of Chinese tax free shoppers in APAC (72%) and Europe (63%), while Gen-X Chinese were the highest spenders on average.

Fliggy
Outbound travel bookings on Fliggy grew by 50% year on year, with international hotel bookings reaching 120% of 2019’s levels.

Macau
Between 1-6 October, Macau received more than 150k inbound tourists daily, on average, far exceeding the government’s forecast of 100k per day. 83.1% of arrivals were from mainland China, and the numbers slightly exceeded pre-pandemic levels, as well as last year’s arrivals numbers. Hotel occupancy in Macau reached 95%, with prices reaching 2019 numbers.

To compare, daily arrivals during 2021’s Golden Week were just 1,200 (source). In 2019, the average daily arrivals from mainland China during the October holiday was 114k (source).

Mafengwo
Data released on 7 October by travel website Mafengwo offers a few surprises. Notably, they found that Georgia – which just became visa free for Chinese visitors – was the 5th most popular outbound travel destination for Mafengwo users, just behind Malaysia.

The top 10 countries were: Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Georgia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Australia, South Korea, and Turkiye.

Africa also saw rising interest, particularly Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, and Namibia. Travelers to Egypt were attracted to the Pyramids and the Red Sea, while safaris and seeing wild animals topped the list for the other African countries.

National Immigration Authority
13.098 million border crossings were recorded during the National Day holiday period. The peak day was October 5, with 2.035 million border crossings. During the holiday period, mainland Chinese made 7.589 million border crossings, a 33.2% year on year increase.

Tongcheng
Based on Tongcheng’s hotel bookings, destinations in East and Southeast Asia were the most popular for the October holiday period, with Dubai the only top destination outside of these regions. The top 10 outbound cities were: Hong Kong, Bangkok, Macau, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Seoul, Phuket, Osaka, and Dubai.

Lower-tier Chinese cities saw the fastest growth in outbound travel bookings, particularly those in the western part of the country. Tongcheng reported that more than 20 western Chinese cities saw outbound flight bookings more than double compared to last year. The 10 mainland cities with the fastest growth for outbound flight bookings on Tongcheng were: Xishuangbanna, Linyi, Xining, Guiyang, Shijiazhuang, Taiyuan, Changzhou, Yanji, Hohhot, and Urumqi.

The most popular outbound flight routes were: Shanghai-Tokyo, Guangzhou-Bangkok, Shanghai-Seoul, and Qingdao-Seoul.

Trip.com Group
Outbound trips from mainland China on 1 October were up by 40% year on year. Trips to Europe increased by 30%, with France, Italy, and the UK the most popular destinations.