Vacationers go to the Confucius Temple market space in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, China, on Oct. 1, 2025.
Cfoto | Future Publishing | Getty Photographs
BEIJING — The newest signal of hyper-competition, or “involution,” has emerged in China’s tourism business, including to issues about growing deflationary pressure within the broader financial system.
Over the Oct. 1 to eight public vacation — dubbed “Golden Week” — complete home tourism journeys reached 888 million and generated 809.01 billion yuan ($113.63 billion) in income, in response to official knowledge launched Thursday. That is up by 1.8% and seven.6% from final yr, respectively, in response to CNBC’s calculations of the figures.
The positive factors, nonetheless, slowed from the Might 1–5 vacation earlier this yr, when home journeys and tourism income grew 6.4% and eight% respectively. In reality, common spending per home vacationer journey in the course of the Golden Week was additionally round 3% decrease than in 2019 earlier than the pandemic, Goldman Sachs identified Thursday.
“The Golden Week was ‘Golden Weak,'” mentioned Combine Shi, founding father of PoshPacker Hostels Chengdu Group.
Though his three hostels within the metropolis ended up being absolutely booked, Shi mentioned he needed to reduce nightly charges by about 60% — as a result of close by accommodations dropped costs much more.
“Means an excessive amount of cash has been pouring into the resort business recently,” Shi mentioned, noting, “the competitors is insane, and a few very nice locations are going for filth low-cost. It is nice for vacationers as a result of they’ve extra selections, however it’s an actual blow to hostels.”
Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province in southwestern China, ranked second to Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province within the east, in tourism spending for the vacation on the Meituan on-line reserving platform.
Amongst native and worldwide guests to hostels in mainland China, Chengdu’s reputation greater than doubled from final yr’s Golden Week, second solely to Shanghai, in response to HostelWorld. Nonetheless, common mattress costs fell greater than 20% in each cities — to 165.70 yuan ($23.27) in Shanghai and 80.99 yuan in Chengdu.
Whereas most locals have solely a handful of paid days off every year, China has sought to encourage companies to present staff extra trip days and prolonged official public holidays to spice up consumption.
This yr’s Golden Week was in the future longer than traditional as a result of it coincided with the Mid-Autumn Competition, which follows the agrarian calendar. The competition fell on Oct. 6 this yr, versus Sept. 17 final yr.
“The Mid-Autumn Competition is taken into account to be a household reunion competition,” mentioned AJ Wang, proprietor of the X Lodge and Observatory Hill Home venues within the northeastern coastal metropolis of Qingdao.
“The true Golden Week, when it comes to income technology, truly ends on the sixth,” he mentioned, noting he needed to reduce costs after that date by 60% resulting from falling demand.
Official home tourism income for the Golden Week alone rose by 15.4% from 2024, however when together with final yr’s Mid-Autumn Festival income figures, the comparable income progress slowed to 7.6%, CNBC calculations confirmed.
“Everybody’s working more durable, spending extra, however the revenue hole stays small,” mentioned Sasa Yau, who runs a hostel and restaurant within the southern metropolis of Guangzhou.
Yau mentioned his each day restaurant gross sales surged from the standard 3,000 yuan to as a lot as 10,000 yuan in the course of the Golden Week, with the typical buyer spending simply 30 yuan.
“We have been busier than ever and broke our income report,” Yau mentioned. “There are solely 4 of us working the present, so by the tip of the week we have been so drained that once I mentioned, ‘Let’s have fun with a late-night meal!’ everybody simply mentioned, ‘Can we have fun by sleeping as an alternative?'”
Trying to find offers
In Chengdu, well-known for its Big pandas and spicy meals, Shi mentioned vacationers are likely to guide rooms solely a day or two upfront as an alternative of per week or two forward, making lodging charges unpredictable
China’s huge community of high-speed trains and airports — with flights generally cheaper than practice tickets — has made travelling on a whim pretty simple. Massive worth swings and challenges in reserving tickets for the primary or final day of a public vacation are pushing vacationers to stagger their journeys when potential — and get monetary savings.
Many vacationers selected to journey barely earlier than or after the Golden Week interval this yr, in response to Chinese language journey reserving web site Trip.com. It famous that hotel prices in late September have been about 20% cheaper than in the course of the Golden Week, whereas mid-holiday airfares have been greater than 30% cheaper than at the beginning of the break.
Subscribe now
Alibaba-owned journey reserving web site Fliggy mentioned common spending per journey reserving rose 14.6% from a yr earlier, and famous that far cheaper flights began the weekend after the vacation, reminiscent of a flight from Shanghai to Hong Kong for lower than 400 yuan ($56).
Official figures additionally pointed to an increase in street journeys, with the vacation seeing an average of 304 million trips per day, largely by automobile.
“The Golden Week unleashed a wave of power throughout China: record-breaking journey, booming enterprise exercise, and recent spending tendencies all gave home demand a strong enhance,” mentioned Bruce Pang, adjunct affiliate professor at CUHK Enterprise College.
“Nonetheless, it would take some time earlier than the [consumer price index] returns to constructive [year-on-year] progress, as meals costs and oil costs stay delicate in comparison with their peak,” he mentioned.
China’s official shopper costs fell by 0.4% in August from a yr earlier however rose 0.9% when stripping out meals and power costs. The tourism sub-segment noticed costs rise 0.7% yr over yr in August, however they have been 0.3% decrease for the January to August interval compared with the identical interval in 2024.
Journey platforms additionally reported elevated demand in smaller cities, the place costs will be far decrease. Chinese language reserving web site Tongcheng mentioned resort bookings in a minimum of 30 such cities and fewer developed areas more than doubled from a year ago.
China’s inflation knowledge for September is due Oct. 15, and retail gross sales on Oct. 20. Retail gross sales rose just 3.4% in August from a yr in the past, lacking analysts’ expectations.
