Ya Xi just returned to Shanghai on a red-eye flight after her Golden Week trip to Southeast Asia. "I can stay up all night for a cheaper ticket," she told DW. She was among the 31.19 million passengers who traveled during the 13-day holiday period that followed the Mid-Autumn Festival on September 25 and China's National Day on October 1.
Many of them spent their budgets more cautiously this year. "I earn less this year, so I'm lowering my budget for this year's Golden Week," said Xi, who is in her mid-20s. "I spent 5,000 yuan (about €660) on my flight, which was the largest expense of my trip." Golden Week is viewed as a barometer of the Chinese economy with Beijing using it as an opportunity to showcase the world's second-largest economy's spending power.
State media, for instance, reported a record-breaking 25.204 million passenger trips on China's railway network on October 1. However, early data indicated more moderate spending per traveler and broadly flat passenger traffic, according to Citigroup analysts. Traffic volume during the first four days of the holiday rose just 0.1% year over year, far below the 3.5% increase seen during this year's Labor Day vacation.
Lee, a fellow on the Chinese Economy at the Asia Society Policy Institute, told DW that Chinese consumers are becoming increasingly selective. "My read is that people are willing to get out and spend. They're just being much more careful about how much and what they spend on," Lee said.
But being cautious doesn't mean staying frozen, she added. "They'll spend on travel, concerts, restaurants, experiences, and tech… if they think it's worth it, they'll economize pretty aggressively elsewhere." Xi's Golden Week trip followed this pattern, paying more for significant experiences and economizing elsewhere: "Eat, drink, and be merry," said Xi, indicating she was willing to spend more on food. For example, she set a 200-yuan (about €26) budget for each meal.
Guo-Chen Wang, an associate research fellow at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research, told DW that the budget-travel trend among Chinese visitors was ongoing. "The number of trips is increasing, butconsumption remains strained, as I saw in past years," Wang said. The Chinese government attempted to boost Golden Week spending by providing coupons worth more than 310 million yuan (€41.2 million).
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