CBN丨China’s May Day holiday set to see tourism boom

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Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours

As China gears up for the May Day holidays, a wave of travel bookings has swept across online travel platforms, painting a vivid picture of a burgeoning consumer market, which signals robust consumption growth for the second quarter.

The domestic travel demand is particularly striking this year. Tuniu.com said on Sunday that domestic travel reservations for the five-day May Day holidays have more than doubled year-on-year.

Data from Trip.com showed that in just the past week, domestic hotel searches soared 100 percent week-on-week, while flight ticket searches spiked 80 percent.

Meituan Travel said that since early April, searches for "May Day travel" have increased by more than 500 percent year-on-year, searches for "tourist attractions" have risen 167 percent and the popularity of five-star hotels has climbed nearly 40 percent.

The trends in this year's May Day travel market are diverse and eye-catching. Inbound tourism has experienced explosive growth, with Trip.com reporting that the search index for inbound hotels during the May Day holiday period has surged 200 percent year-on-year, while inbound tourism bookings have increased by 173 percent.

The viral success of American YouTuber IShowSpeed's China travel series and recent policies like the instant tax refund for overseas tourists have significantly contributed to this growth, according to Trip.com.

Economists are optimistic about the far-reaching impact of these trends, as major holidays serve as key barometers of consumer trends. This holiday consumption surge is set to further accelerate overall consumption growth in the second quarter, they said.

Official data also reflected positive momentum. First-quarter retail sales expanded 4.6 percent year-on-year, 1.1 percentage points faster than in 2024, reaching 12.47 trillion yuan.

Notably, services consumption outpaced goods sales, with retail sales of services growing 5 percent year-on-year. Per capita expenditure on transportation and communications rose 10.4 percent, while spending on education, culture and entertainment increased 13.9 percent.

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