China’s domestic tourism saw 2.826 billion person-trips in the first half of 2018, an increase of 11.4% year-on-year. Among them, urban residents went on 1.997 billion person-trips, increased by 13.7% compared with the 829 million person-trips made by rural residents, an increase of 6.3%, according to National Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
The revenue of domestic tourism amounted to 2.45 trillion yuan (US$357.12 bn), increased by 12.5% from H1 2017. Specifically, 1.95 trillion yuan (US$284.24 bn) was from urban residents, an increase of 13.7% while 500 billion yuan (US$72.88 bn) came from rural residents, an increase of 8.3%.
Revenue from international tourism totaled US$61.8 billion in H1 2018, up by 2.8% year-on-year. To be specific, the spending of foreign tourists was US$35.4 billion, grew by 4.6% compared with the spending of US$14.2 billion by Hong Kong tourists, a decrease of 2.5%, the spending of US$4.2 billion by Macau tourists, an increase of 4.2%, and the spending of US$7.9 billion by Taiwan tourists, an increase of 4.2%.
International tourists went on 69.23 million person-trips to mainland China, decreased by 0.4% year-on-year. Among them, 14.82 million person-trips was made by foreign tourists, an increase of 4.0%. Hong Kong tourists made 39.08 million person-trips, a decrease of 2.7% compared with 12.33 million person-trips made by Macau tourists, an increase of 1.1% and 3 million person-trips made by Taiwan tourists, an increase of 4.1%.
Sorted by transportation methods, ships accounted for 3.3%, flights for 17.1%, trains for 0.8%, cars for 22.5% and foot passengers for 56.2%. During the same period, overnight tourists made 30.72 million person-trips, increased by 2.0% year-on-year.
Among them, 11.44 million person-trips was made by foreign tourists, an increase of 4.4%. While 13.88 million person-trips came from Hong Kong tourists, a decrease of 0.8%, 2.71 million person-trips came from Macau tourists, an increase of 4.9% and 2.7 million person-trips came from Taiwan tourists, an increase of 4.1%.
Of the 23.77 million person-trips made by foreign tourists, Asian tourists accounted for 76.7% of the total. While sorted by the age group, those between 25 and 44 years old accounted for 50.3% of the total.
The top 17 countries ranked by the number of tourists traveling to China were Myanmar, Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, the United States, Russia, Mongolia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Canada, India, Thailand, Australia, Indonesia, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
Chinese outbound tourists went on 71.31 million person-trips, an increase of 15% year-on-year.
Overall, Chinese residents’ willingness to travel were 83.0% and 84.8% in the first two quarters of 2018, respectively, an increase of 1 percentage point and 3.7 percentage points year-on-year.
China online travel market overview 2018; better performance seen on mobile
