Tourism boomed, with domestic tourists increasing by 16.1% in the last quarter.

Despite the rising cost of living, the willingness of Chinese people to travel and consume has not diminished.

The National Bureau of Statistics today released tourism data, showing that domestic tourists in China grew by 16.1% year-on-year to 54.3 million people in the last quarter, while tourist spending recorded a 29.5% increase to 23.8 billion ringgit.

According to the Chief Statistician of the National Bureau of Statistics, Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir, the number of domestic tourists in China reached 1.09 billion people last year, an increase of 22.9% compared to the previous year.

At the same time, domestic tourist spending surged by 32.5% to 84.9 billion ringgit last year.

However, the number of domestic tourists and their spending last year were still lower than the pre-pandemic levels in 2019, with a difference of 11.8% and 17.7% respectively.

Among different categories, theme park revenue index grew by 49.2% year-on-year, followed by domestic airport arrivals (up 1.7%), road traffic volume (up 10.9%), and retail automotive fuel (up 3.4%).

At the same time, the lodging revenue index also grew by 12.5% annually. Among them, the occupancy rate of five-star hotels increased by 2.1%, followed by four-star hotels (up 0.7%) and three-star hotels (up 14.8%). The occupancy rates of hotels in mountainous areas and towns grew by 2.2% and 2.6%, respectively.