People visit Huangsi Temple Fair during the Spring Festival holiday in Shenyang, capital of Northeast China's Liaoning Province, Jan. 23, 2023. Various activities were held here at the 6-day fair, starting from Jan. 22, to celebrate the Spring Festival. (Xinhua/Yang Qing)

Chinese online travel agencies and scenic spots have observed a significant recovery with air tickets, hotel booking and tourists visits during the 2023 Spring Festival holidays exceeding 2019 levels as consumer spending rebounded more than expected after China optimized its COVID-19 prevention measure.

As mainstay of economic development, a sustained recovery of consumption during the Spring Festival further will further boost the overall recovery, signaling a good start of the country’s economy in 2023, experts said.

Halfway through the seven-day Spring Festival holidays, the national travel market is recovering quickly, the Global Times learned from several travel agencies.

Air ticket bookings for return trips during the 40-day Spring Festival travel rush from January 26 to 31 surged 33 percent year-on-year from 2022, surpassing pre-epidemic levels in 2019, while train ticket bookings rose 27 percent year-on-year, with tickets for popular routes almost sold out, according to data from travel agency Qunar sent to the Global Times on Wednesday.

The return trips during the Spring Festival travel rush have started and are expected to peak on January 27, according to the platform.

“The resumption of the Spring Festival travel rush will be a good start for 2023,” said Guo Lechun, vice president of Qunar Big Data Research Institute, in the statement.

Bookings for domestic hotels and scenic spots also exceeded pre-epidemic levels, indicating a rebound in consumption, the Global Times learned from Chinese online travel agency Trip.com.

In the first four days into the Chinese New Year, bookings for hotels, B&B hotels and tourism tickets surpassed the same period in 2019, Trip.com said in a statement sent to the Global Times on Wednesday.

The booking for B&B hotels has more than doubled from the same period of 2022 and the number of tourism tickets was up more than 50 percent year-on-year.

Historical sites, natural scenery, scenic spots across China are expected to see peak tourist flows on Wednesday, the fifth day of the 2023 Spring Festival holidays.

Tickets to iconic Sanxingdui Museum and Leshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area in Southwest China’s Sichuan were sold out for the three consecutive days from Monday to Wednesday.

Leshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area has a daily limit of 28,000 tickets for mountain tours, and a limit of 20,000 for daytime river tours.

Tickets for the Huangshan Mountain, East China’s Anhui Province were also booked out for Wednesday and Thursday. On Monday the scenic spot saw the number of visitors hit a five-year high for Spring Festival holidays since 2018.

In addition to the tourism recovery, China’s box office for the 2023 Spring Festival exceeded 4.5 billion yuan ($663 million), with Full River Red taking the lead with more than 1.5 billion yuan, as of Wednesday afternoon.

Following the Chinese New Year holidays, more consumer demand is set to be unleashed, which will be a mainstay for economic growth in 2023, analysts said.

It is believed that consumption will become a key factor in determining the magnitude and quality of China's economic growth this year, Darius Tang, Associate Director of Corporates at Fitch Bohua, told the Global Times in a recent interview.

“We expect with the introduction of stimulus policies, retail sales, service industry in particular, would enjoy a very high potential of repair this year,” Tang said.

China’s consumer market remained generally stable in 2022 with retail sales of nearly 44 trillion yuan despite the epidemic, and more measures are underway to boost consumption this year, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

As the impact of COVID restrictions weakens, the previously suppressed consumption demand in travel, retail, dining, tourism, fitness and entertainment will significantly rebound, Zhou Maohua, an economist at Everbright Bank, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

It is expected that China’s retail sales will grow by more than 10 percent year-on-year in 2023, Zhou noted.