Passengers wait at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport on April 29, 2023, the first day of the five-day May Day holidays. Photo: Courtesy of Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport

China's tourism industry ushered in a rare and eye-catching recovery during the May Day holidays, with passenger flows for trains and flights hitting historic levels on the first day of holidays, data released by several domestic travel platforms showed.

The robust travel performance of the holidays is also a vivid display of the vibrancy of China's economy which was highlighted at a top leadership's meeting one day earlier, and it also reflected a turning point in the consumption rebound and a good start on the path back to economic recovery, experts said.

The national railway is expected to transport19.5 million passengers on Saturday, the first day of the five-day long holidays, more than 10 percent higher than the previously recorded. And 120 million passengers are expected to transport from Thursday to May 4, an increase of 20 percent over the same period in 2019, according to China Railway.

Booming rail travel reflected on the business of some major train stations in the country. For example, Beijing South Railway Station will welcome its largest passenger flow on Saturday since the station was built in 1897 with an estimated 235,000 passengers leaving Beijing from the station on a single day.

Due to the high demand for travel, some train or flight tickets have been very hard to get. A Beijing resident surnamed Zhao told the Global Times on Saturday that the tickets, no matter via airlines or train to Huangshan, East China's Anhui Province were all booked out or with high prices days before the holidays. "I have switched to a trip to neighboring Tianjin and plan to spend my whole holidays there," Zhao said.

Passengers wait at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport on April 29, 2023, the first day of the five-day May Day holidays. Photo: Courtesy of Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport

Tourists have shown a strong willingness to travel during the holidays, with surging travel demand, the Global Times also learned from the news released by several tourism platforms on Saturday.

Data from the travel portal Fliggy showed that the turnover of domestic travel products on Saturday hit a historical peak. The turnover of domestic air tickets, accommodation, train tickets, and car rental has all surpassed the same period in 2019 by a large margin.

The spike in hotel and homestay bookings has been particularly strong, with a turnover increase of 129 percent year-on-year in 2019, Fliggy said.

Data released by Ctrip, a major online travel agency in China, on Saturday, the overall travel orders on the platform increased by more than 10 fold year-on-year, or more than doubled than that of 2019, and a surge of 668 percent compared to the first day of this year's Spring Festival holidays.

Air travel has also surged. Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, one of the top three hubs in terms of passenger throughput recorded more than 200,000 passenger trips for two consecutive days on Thursday and Friday. In detail, the domestic passenger throughput of the airport reached 184,200 on Friday, 1.18 times that of the same period in 2019.

Data from industry information provider VariFlight showed that the number of international and domestic passenger flights on Friday reached the highest peak in over three years, with 13,650 passenger flights for domestic routes and 1,053 passenger flights for overseas routes.

Air ticket prices spiked long before the holiday. As of April 23, the overall price of air tickets during the holidays had increased by over 30 percent compared to the same period in 2019, VariFlight said.

The bullish tourism recovery also reflected on the numbers for tourists for major domestic popular tourism destinations.

According to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, the city's 206 key monitored tourist attractions welcomed 1.841 million tourists in total on Saturday, recovering to 84.8 percent of the same period in 2019. Also, the operating income of the corresponding attractions on Saturday hit 107 million yuan ($15.48 million), recovering to 100 percent of the same period in 2019, said the bureau.

A forecast made by the Yunnan Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism said that the province will receive more than 30 million tourists during the holidays, which is about 200 percent more than the same period in 2019, according to media reports.

Given the positive trends, the China Tourism Academy predicated that the number of tourists during this year's May Day holidays is expected to exceed the level of the same period in 2019, reaching 240 million passenger trips, according to CCTV.com.

Experts said that the dent-up demand for travel enthusiasm for three years has been fully released on May Day holidays, which will be an important turning point for an economy wide rebound.

The tourism rebound is a very positive signal for the rapid recovery of domestic consumption, and it is the primary driving force for the economic revival, said Li Changan, a professor at the Academy of China Open Economy Studies of the University of International Business and Economics told the Global Times on Saturday.

"Consumption has become the most important driving force behind China's economic growth. With a contribution rate of more than 50 percent in recent years, it will be a strong source of support for the realization of the annual economic growth target," Li said.

The consumption rebound during the May Day holidays came after a meeting convened by China's top leadership on Friday, saying that economic growth has been better than expected, market demand has been gradually recovering, economic development has shown an upward momentum, and economic operation has got off to a good start.