China's domestic tourism market plummeted in the third quarter, blocking the recovery momentum in the first half of this year. The reason was that inter-provincial tourism was suspended due to the intermittent reports of COVID cases.
According to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the number of domestic tourists in the third quarter fell by 18.3% year-on-year, while the growth rates in the first and second quarters were 247.1% and 33%, respectively.
Due to the strong performance in the first two quarters of this year, the total domestic tourist arrivals from January to September increased by 39.1% year-on-year to 2.689 billion.
Experts familiar with the Chinese culture and tourism industry said: "If the tourism situation in the next two months can reach the level of last year, it will be a fairly optimistic forecast."
The expert pointed out that there are no public holidays in the rest of this year, which aggravates the problems faced by winter tourism. Coupled with the fact that the COVID pandemic has not yet been completely eliminated, a recovery in the fourth quarter is unlikely.
