BEIJING (Reuters) – The number of trips to China during the three-day holiday of the Moon Festival, also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival, has fallen and tourist receipts have fallen, according to official data, the restrictions linked to COVID-19 having limited travel.
The number of tourist trips fell 16.7 percent from a year earlier to 73.4 million during the holiday period which ended on Monday, according to figures from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
Tourism revenue fell 22.8 percent to 28.68 billion yuan (4.09 billion euros).
Authorities have generally urged people to refrain from non-essential travel ahead of National Day next month and the Communist Party congress in mid-October.
“We believe that travel for family reunions, tourism and retail sales will be severely affected in the coming months, including the holidays (…) National Day from October 1 to 7,” said the Japanese broker Nomura.
“Deteriorating tourism data could lead to further reductions in market GDP growth forecasts,” its analysts wrote in a note.
During the Mid-Autumn Festival, road trips fell 37% to 48.18 million and those by boat fell 15% to 1.54 million, state television reported on Monday.
A total of 1.28 million air journeys were recorded in China, according to figures reported by state broadcaster CCTV, a level nearly 60 percent lower than last year’s holiday.
(Report Liangping Gao and Ryan Woo in Beijing and Aizhu Chen in Singapore; French version Valentine Baldassari, edited by Sophie Louet)