China's Golden Week draws 31.19 million travelers as spending stays cautious

31.19 million passengers traveled during the 13-day holiday period that followed the Mid-Autumn Festival on September 25 and China's National Day on October 1, according to DW. State media reported a record 25.204 million passenger trips on China's railway network on October 1, DW reported.

Citigroup analysts said early data indicated more moderate spending per traveler and broadly flat passenger traffic, according to DW. Traffic volume during the first four days of the holiday rose 0.1% year over year, the analysts said, far below the 3.5% increase seen during this year's Labor Day vacation.

Xi, a traveler in her mid-20s, told DW she spent 5,000 yuan (about €660) on her flight, the largest expense of her trip. "I earn less this year, so I'm lowering my budget for this year's Golden Week," she said. She set a 200-yuan (about €26) budget for each meal.

Lizzi C. Lee, a fellow on the Chinese Economy at the Asia Society Policy Institute, told DW that Chinese consumers are becoming increasingly selective. She said people are willing to get out and spend but are being more careful about how much and what they spend on, and that they will spend on travel, concerts, restaurants, experiences and tech, then economize aggressively elsewhere if they think it is worth it. Guo-Chen Wang, an associate research fellow at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research, told DW the budget-travel trend among Chinese visitors was ongoing, with the number of trips increasing but consumption remaining strained.

Wang said the government's coupons, worth more than 310 million yuan (€41.2 million), were "an old solution to an old problem." He said Beijing still believes low spending was due to consumers' reluctance to spend, adding: "In fact, we think Chinese consumers are unable to spend." Wang said savings in Chinese banks kept increasing but the vast majority are held by a small proportion of the population, and that the fundamental issue is the wealth gap in Chinese society.

Lee said she saw weak spending during this Golden Week as a confidence problem, citing the property downturn's effect on household wealth, soft income and job expectations, and several years of weak prices that she said trained people to wait for discounts and hunt for value. Average spending per trip during last year's holiday season was 911.04 yuan (around €121), the lowest in three years, according to Reuters. An International Monetary Fund publication, "Toward a New Economic Growth Model for China," noted that China's domestic demand has been weak since the pandemic, when the property market correction began, DW reported.