{"id":1806,"date":"2025-10-09T11:18:43","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T11:18:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/chinas-golden-week-travel-boom-masks-a-bruising-price-war\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T11:18:43","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T11:18:43","slug":"chinas-golden-week-travel-boom-masks-a-bruising-price-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/chinas-golden-week-travel-boom-masks-a-bruising-price-war\/","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s Golden Week&#8217; travel boom masks a bruising price war"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div id=\"RegularArticle-ArticleBody-5\" data-module=\"ArticleBody\" data-test=\"articleBody-2\" data-analytics=\"RegularArticle-articleBody-5-2\"><span class=\"HighlightShare-hidden\" style=\"top:0;left:0\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"InlineImage-imageEmbed\" id=\"ArticleBody-InlineImage-108209187\" data-test=\"InlineImage\">\n<div class=\"InlineImage-wrapper\">\n<div>\n<p>Tourists visit the Confucius Temple market area in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, China, on Oct. 1, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Cfoto | Future Publishing | Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"group\">\n<p>BEIJING \u2014 The latest sign of hyper-competition, or &#8220;involution,&#8221; has emerged in China&#8217;s tourism industry, adding to concerns about growing deflationary pressure in the broader economy.<\/p>\n<p>Over the Oct. 1 to 8 public holiday \u2014 dubbed &#8220;Golden Week&#8221; \u2014 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&#8217;s up by 1.8% and 7.6% from last year, respectively, according to CNBC&#8217;s calculations of the figures.<\/p>\n<p>The gains, however, slowed from the May 1\u20135 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.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Golden Week was &#8216;Golden Weak,'&#8221; said Mix Shi, founder of PoshPacker Hostels Chengdu Group.<\/p>\n<p>Although his three hostels in the city ended up being fully booked, Shi said he had to cut nightly rates by about 60% \u2014 because nearby hotels dropped prices even more.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Way too much money has been pouring into the hotel industry lately,&#8221; Shi said, noting, &#8220;the competition is insane, and some really nice places are going for dirt cheap. It&#8217;s great for travelers because they have more choices, but it&#8217;s a real blow to hostels.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province in southwestern China, ranked second to Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province in the east, in tourism spending for the holiday on the <span class=\"QuoteInBody-quoteNameContainer\" data-test=\"QuoteInBody\" id=\"RegularArticle-QuoteInBody-4\">Meituan<span class=\"QuoteInBody-inlineButton\"><span class=\"AddToWatchlistButton-watchlistContainer\" id=\"-WatchlistDropdown\" data-analytics-id=\"-WatchlistDropdown\"><button class=\"AddToWatchlistButton-watchlistButton\" aria-label=\"Add To Watchlist\" data-testid=\"dropdown-btn\"><span class=\"AddToWatchlistButton-addWatchListFromTag\"\/><\/button><\/span><\/span><\/span> online booking platform.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div role=\"region\" aria-labelledby=\"Placeholder-ArticleBody-Video-108209559\">\n<div role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" id=\"Placeholder-ArticleBody-Video-108209559\" class=\"PlaceHolder-wrapper\" data-vilynx-id=\"7000391442\" data-test=\"VideoPlaceHolder\">\n<div class=\"InlineVideo-videoEmbed\" id=\"InlineVideo-0\" data-test=\"InlineVideo\">\n<div class=\"InlineVideo-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"InlineVideo-inlineThumbnailContainer\"><span class=\"InlineVideo-videoButton\"\/><span\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"group\">\n<p>Among local and international visitors to hostels in mainland China, Chengdu&#8217;s popularity more than doubled from last year&#8217;s Golden Week, second only to Shanghai, according to HostelWorld. Still, average bed prices fell more than 20% in both cities \u2014 to 165.70 yuan ($23.27) in Shanghai and 80.99 yuan in Chengdu.<\/p>\n<p>While most locals have only a handful of paid days off each year, China has sought to encourage businesses to give workers more vacation days and extended official public holidays to boost consumption.<\/p>\n<p>This year&#8217;s Golden Week was one day longer than usual because it coincided with the Mid-Autumn Festival, which follows the agrarian calendar. The festival fell on Oct. 6 this year, versus Sept. 17 last year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Mid-Autumn Festival is considered to be a family reunion festival,&#8221; said AJ Wang, owner of the X Hotel and Observatory Hill House venues in the northeastern coastal city of Qingdao.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The real Golden Week, in terms of revenue generation, actually ends on the 6th,&#8221; he said, noting he had to cut prices after that date by 60% due to falling demand.<\/p>\n<p>Official domestic tourism revenue for the Golden Week alone rose by 15.4% from 2024, but when including last year&#8217;s Mid-Autumn Festival revenue figures, the comparable revenue growth slowed to 7.6%, CNBC calculations showed.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Everyone&#8217;s working harder, spending more, but the profit gap stays small,&#8221; said Sasa Yau, who runs a hostel and restaurant in the southern city of Guangzhou.<\/p>\n<p>Yau said his daily restaurant sales surged from the typical 3,000 yuan to as much as 10,000 yuan during the Golden Week, with the average customer spending just 30 yuan.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We were busier than ever and broke our revenue record,&#8221; Yau said. &#8220;There are only four of us running the show, so by the end of the week we were so tired that when I said, &#8216;Let&#8217;s celebrate with a late-night meal!&#8217; everyone just said, &#8216;Can we celebrate by sleeping instead?'&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2 class=\"ArticleBody-subtitle\">Hunting for deals<\/h2>\n<div class=\"group\">\n<p>In Chengdu, famous for its Giant pandas and spicy food, Shi said travelers tend to book rooms only a day or two in advance instead of a week or two ahead, making accommodation rates unpredictable<\/p>\n<p>China&#8217;s vast network of high-speed trains and airports \u2014 with flights sometimes cheaper than train tickets \u2014 has made travelling on a whim fairly easy. Large price swings and challenges in booking tickets for the first or last day of a public holiday are pushing travelers to stagger their trips when possible \u2014 and save money.<\/p>\n<p>Many tourists chose to travel slightly before or after the Golden Week period this year, according to Chinese travel booking site <span class=\"QuoteInBody-quoteNameContainer\" data-test=\"QuoteInBody\" id=\"RegularArticle-QuoteInBody-7\">Trip.com<span class=\"QuoteInBody-inlineButton\"><span class=\"AddToWatchlistButton-watchlistContainer\" id=\"-WatchlistDropdown\" data-analytics-id=\"-WatchlistDropdown\"><button class=\"AddToWatchlistButton-watchlistButton\" aria-label=\"Add To Watchlist\" data-testid=\"dropdown-btn\"><span class=\"AddToWatchlistButton-addWatchListFromTag\"\/><\/button><\/span><\/span><\/span>. It noted that hotel prices in late September were about 20% cheaper than during the Golden Week, while mid-holiday airfares were more than 30% cheaper than at the start of the break.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-test=\"WildCardEmbed\">\n<div class=\"WildcardEmbed-wrapper\">\n<style><![CDATA[\n\tdiv {box-sizing: border-box;}\n\t\n\t.noselect {\n\t  -webkit-touch-callout: none; \/* iOS Safari *\/\n\t\t-webkit-user-select: none; \/* Safari *\/\n\t\t -khtml-user-select: none; \/* Konqueror HTML *\/\n\t\t   -moz-user-select: none; \/* Old versions of Firefox *\/\n\t\t\t-ms-user-select: none; \/* Internet Explorer\/Edge *\/\n\t\t\t\tuser-select: none; \/* Non-prefixed version, currently\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t  supported by Chrome, Edge, Opera and Firefox *\/\n\t}\n\t\n\t#tcc-wrapper {width: 100%; max-width: 620px; min-width: 300px; cursor: pointer; display: block;}\n\t\n\t.tcc-widget-content {\n\t\tfont-family: Proxima Nova,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;\n\t\tfont-size: 16px;\n\t\tline-height: 24px;\n\t\tfont-weight: 400; \n\t\tcolor: #000;\n\t\tpadding: 16px 0 16px 0;\n\t\twidth: 100%;\n\t\theight: auto;\n\t\tborder-top: 1px solid #cccccc;\n\t\tborder-bottom: 1px solid #cccccc;\n\t}\n\t\n\t.tcc-logo-col {\n\t\tfloat: left;\n   \t\tmargin-right: 20px;\n\t}\n\t\n\t.tcc-text-col {\n\t\t\n\t}\n\t\n\t.tcc-text a {\n\t\tcolor: #0053CF !important;\n\t\ttext-decoration: none;\n\t\tfont-weight: 600; \n\t}\n\t\n\t\n\n]]><\/style>\n<div id=\"tcc-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"tcc-widget-content\">\n<div class=\"tcc-logo-col\">\n\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/fm.cnbc.com\/applications\/cnbc.com\/resources\/styles\/skin\/special-reports\/the-china-connection\/tcc_widget_logo.png\" width=\"314\" height=\"auto\"\/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"tcc-text-col\">\n<div class=\"tcc-text\">Weekly analysis and insights from Asia&#8217;s largest economy in your inbox<br \/>\n\t\t\tSubscribe now<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"group\">\n<p>Alibaba-owned travel booking site Fliggy said average spending per travel booking rose 14.6% from a year earlier, and noted that far cheaper flights started the weekend after the holiday, such as a flight from Shanghai to Hong Kong for less than 400 yuan ($56).<\/p>\n<p>Official figures also pointed to a rise in road trips, with the holiday seeing an average of 304 million trips per day, mostly by car.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Golden Week unleashed a wave of energy across China: record-breaking travel, booming business activity, and fresh spending trends all gave domestic demand a solid boost,&#8221; said Bruce Pang, adjunct associate professor at CUHK Business School.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Still, it might take a while before the [consumer price index] returns to positive [year-on-year] growth, as food prices and oil prices remain soft compared to their peak,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>China&#8217;s official consumer prices fell by 0.4% in August from a year earlier but rose 0.9% when stripping out food and energy prices. The tourism sub-segment saw prices rise 0.7% year over year in August, but they were 0.3% lower for the January to August period compared with the same period in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Travel platforms also reported increased demand in smaller cities, where prices can be far lower. Chinese booking site <span class=\"QuoteInBody-quoteNameContainer\" data-test=\"QuoteInBody\" id=\"RegularArticle-QuoteInBody-12\">Tongcheng<span class=\"QuoteInBody-inlineButton\"><span class=\"AddToWatchlistButton-watchlistContainer\" id=\"-WatchlistDropdown\" data-analytics-id=\"-WatchlistDropdown\"><button class=\"AddToWatchlistButton-watchlistButton\" aria-label=\"Add To Watchlist\" data-testid=\"dropdown-btn\"><span class=\"AddToWatchlistButton-addWatchListFromTag\"\/><\/button><\/span><\/span><\/span> said hotel bookings in at least 30 such cities and less developed areas more than doubled from a year ago.<\/p>\n<p>China&#8217;s inflation data for September is due Oct. 15, and retail sales on Oct. 20. Retail sales rose\u00a0just 3.4%\u00a0in August from a year ago, missing analysts&#8217; expectations.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tourists visit the Confucius Temple market area in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, China, on Oct. 1, 2025. Cfoto | Future Publishing | Getty Images BEIJING \u2014 The latest sign of hyper-competition, or &#8220;involution,&#8221; has emerged in China&#8217;s tourism industry, adding to concerns about growing deflationary pressure in the broader economy. Over the Oct. 1 to 8 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[793,1760,790,1759,1247,228,266,760,258],"class_list":["post-1806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-loan","tag-boom","tag-bruising","tag-chinas","tag-golden","tag-masks","tag-price","tag-travel","tag-war","tag-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}