Soft Tourism Data For Golden Week 2022
Tourism data for 2022’s Golden Week was soft as expected, with total revenue/tourist numbers recovering to 44.2%/60.7% of pre-COVID-19 levels. This was in conjunction with the clusters of lockdowns implemented across the country. Local and short-haul travel increased in popularity and accounted for 65% of total trips taken during the seven-day holiday. We still prefer Trip.com as it is a key beneficiary of the rapid recovery in international travel. Maintain OVERWEIGHT on the OTA sector.
WHAT’S NEW
• Key statistics for Golden Week 2022. Travel industry data and comments by online travel agencies (OTA) point to weak travel demand during this year’s Golden Week Holiday. The Ministry of Cultural and Tourism (MCT) reported 422m total domestic tourists during the seven-day Golden Week holiday, down by 18.2% yoy and recovering to 60.7% of prepandemic levels (vs Mid-Autumn festival: 72.6%). Total domestic tourism revenue was Rmb287.2b, down 26.2% yoy, and recovering to 44.2% of pre-pandemic levels (vs MidAutumn festival: 60.6%). The per capita tourism consumption of 422m tourists was rmb681 or 27% less than pre-pandemic level.
• Tongcheng-Travel delivered resilient Golden Week tourism data. According to Tongcheng-Travel (TT), the average price of domestic hotel reservations dropped slightly yoy to around Rmb200, while take rate continued to improve yoy due to lower subsidies. Hotel booking room nights slipped by single-digit % vs 2019 (or double-digit % decline yoy). Airline/railway ticketing were more impacted than hotels, with double-digit declines, but still outperformed the industry (-50%/-48% yoy) by 5-10ppts. Inter-city bus ticketing and car hailing volume maintained robust growth of 20% and 50% yoy. The most popular cities for accommodation booking were Tier-1 cities such as Shanghai, which saw a flattish yoy growth in hotel reservation. Local orders accounted for 60% while prices rose 20% compared with the week before the holiday. Local orders accounted for 89% and 65% of total car use and total hotels and accommodation products respectively. This shows that short-haul and local tours continued to gain popularity.
• Overview of Trip.com’s Golden Week tourism data. According to Trip.com’s (TCOM) “2022 National Day Holiday Tourism Summary Report”, 65% of its bookings were for shorthaul travel, and tourists per capita increased by 30% yoy. According to TCOM’s 2022 ticket data, ticket orders for local surrounding scenic spots accounted for 80% of the total tickets during the National Day holiday. 60% of tourists took high-speed railway (HSR), spending less than two hours for a one-way trip; the average travel radius was about 300km. In addition, staying in hotels for vacation has also become an important choice for consumers. This shows that tourists’ top preference continue to lie in short-haul travel due to lingering
uncertainties surrounding China’s zero-Covid policy.
• Meituan saw higher local spending. According to Meituan, high-end hotels and staycations were new travel preferences for vacations as the average daily order volume of high-end hotels on Meituan nearly doubled during the Golden Week. Night-time consumption accounted for 47% of total spending. Consumption data released by Meituan shows that local consumption accounted for 77.4%, which became the key driver in stimulating domestic tourism recovery. Average daily local consumption (ie food delivery, movie ticketing, etc.) increased by 52% as compared with pre-pandemic levels.
