Over the Oct. 1 to 8 public holiday — dubbed “Golden Week” — total domestic tourism trips reached 888 million and generated 809.01 billion yuan ($113.63 billion) in revenue, according to official data released Thursday. That’s up by 1.8% and 7.6% from last year, respectively, according to CNBC’s calculations of the figures. The gains, however, slowed from the May 1–5 holiday earlier this year, when domestic trips and tourism revenue grew 6.4% and 8% respectively. In fact, average spending per domestic tourist trip during the Golden Week was also around 3% lower than in 2019 before the pandemic, Goldman Sachs pointed out Thursday.
“The Golden Week was ‘Golden Weak,’” said Mix Shi, founder of PoshPacker Hostels Chengdu Group.