Main Tourism Economy Data report for the first half of 2018: Press release from Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People’s Republic of China

Translated from the following ministerial press release by COTRI China Outbound Tourism Research Institute.

For COTRI data regarding Chinese outbound tourism in H1 2018, please see the following link.

In the first half of 2018, travel demand among Chinese people has been strong, with more attention paid on the combination of travelling with culture, innovation and technology, as well as more improvements achieved in quality and performance. The domestic travel market has increased steadily, while the inbound travel market has gradually decreased and the outbound travel market has seen steady development. The number of domestic tourists seen was 2.826 billion, an increase of 11.4% over the same period from the previous year; the total number of China in- and outbound tourists was 141 million, an increase of 6.9% over the same period from the previous year.

1) The first half of 2018 saw an increase of 11.4% in the number of domestic travellers undertaking red tourism trips over the same period from the previous year.

According to the domestic tourism sample survey, the first half year of 2018 saw 2.826 billion domestic tourists within China, an increase of 11.4% over the same period from the previous year. Among them, the number of domestic trips made by city residents was 1.997 billion, an increase of 13.7%, while the number of trips made by tourists from rural areas was 829 million, an increase of 6.3%. Income generated by domestic tourism income reached 2.45 trillion RMB (ca. USD 370 billion), an increase of 12.5% comparing with the same period last year. Among this figure, 1.95 trillion RMB (ca. USD 287 billion) was from city residents, an increase of 13.7%, while 500 billion RMB (ca. USD 73 billion) came from rural residents, an increase of 8.3%.

According to the data from the key 18 red tourism cities and ‘classic’ 436 red tourism destinations in the red tourism information reporting system, the total number of visitors is 484 million, an increase of 4.83%, representing 17.13% of total number of domestic tourists. This accounted for a total income of 252.498 billion RMB (ca. USD 37 billion), an increase of 5.73%, representing 10.32% of total domestic tourism income.

2) In the first half of 2018, the international tourism income reached 61.8 billion USD, the number of foreign tourists and the number of overnight visitors were both over 4%.

(i) Foreign tourists’ spending in China is increasing

In the first half of 2018, the total international tourism income was 61.8 billion USD, an increase of 2.8% over the same period of last year. Among this figure, foreign tourists spent USD35.4 billion, an increase of 4.6%. The rest of the figure was made up by 14.2 billion USD spent by Hong Kong tourists, a decrease of 2.5%, 4.2 billion spent by tourists from Macau, an increase of 4.2%, and 7.9 billion USD spent by tourists from Taiwan, an increase of 4.2%.

(ii) Negative growth in the Hong Kong market

In the first half of 2018, the number of inbound tourists is 69.23 million, a decrease of 0.4% over the same period of previous year. Among them, the number of foreign tourists was 14.82 million, an increase of 4%, while the number of Hong Kong tourists was 39.08 million, a decrease of 2.7%. However, the number of tourists from Macau was 12.33 million, an increase of 1.1%, while the number of tourists from Taiwan was 3 million, an increase of 4.1%. According to the method of entry, the number of inbound tourists can be divided as follows: ships accounted for 3.3%, flights for 17.1%, trains for 0.8%, cars 22.5% and foot passengers accounted for 56.2%. During the same period, the number of overnight tourists was 30.72 million, an increase of 2.0% over the same period of previous year. Among them, foreign overnight tourists were 11.44 million, an increase of 4.4%, Hong Kong overnight tourists were 13.88 million, a decrease of 0.8%, Macau overnight tourists were 2.71 million, an increase of 4.9% and overnight tourists from Taiwan were 2.70 million, an increase of 4.1%.

(iii) 76.7% of inbound foreign tourists are Asian

In the first half year of 2018, the number of inbound tourists was 23.77 million [1]. Of this total, Asia accounted for 76.7%, the Americas 8%, Europe 12.1%, Oceania 1.9%, Africa 1.3%, and other countries made up 0.0%. These travellers were divided into the following age groups: 3.1% below 14 years old, 13.9% between 15 and 24 years old, 50.3% between 25 and 44 years old, 28.3% between 45 and 64 years old and 4.4% above 65 years old. Divided by gender, the travellers were made up of: 60.1% male tourists and 39.9% female tourists.

In the first half year of 2018, according to the number of people entering China, the top 17 countries ranked by number of tourists travelling to China were [2]: Myanmar, Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, the United States, Russia, Mongolia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Canada, India, Thailand, Australia, Indonesia, Germany and the United Kingdom.

3) An increase of Chinese outbound tourists reached 15% in the first half of 2018.

In the first half of 2018, the number of Chinese outbound tourists was 71.31 million, an increase of 15.0% over the same period from the previous year.

4) Chinese residents’ willingness to travel continues to rise; the tourist industry’s business climate has declined slightly.

Residents’ willingness to travel in the first and second quarter in 2018 are 83.0% and 84.8% respectively, an increase of 1% and 3.7% over the same period from the previous year. In the first half of 2018, Chinese tourists’ consumption and investment remained strong, but showed signs of slowing growth. The tourism economic operation comprehensive index (CTA – TEP) in the first and second quarter was 119.11 and 115.93 respectively, an increase of 3.11 points and decrease of 2.73 points over the same period of previous year accordingly.  In the same period, the tourism industry continued to operate in the “relatively booming” range. In the first and second quarters, the tourism industry index was 130.81 and 128.05, which both decreased respectively.

5) The quality of tourism services continued to improve.

The comprehensive index of tourism operation quality in the first and second quarter was recorded as 77.21 and 76.86 respectively, an increase of 2.90 points and 0.83 points over the same period from the previous year. The indicators for tourism public service, industry service and development environmental quality continued to be optimised, with the increase of 0.5, 1.2 and 0.6 points respectively over the same period from the previous year. In the first half of 2018, the national tourism supervision and tourist complaint index reached 74.80 which was the same as compared with the same period from the previous year.

[1] Including number of people travelling from neighbouring countries to China

[2] Among them, including people from Myanmar, Vietnam, Russia, Mongolia and India travelling within China

Image: Selfie Sticks by Chris Hoare Source: Flickr Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)