On February 1st, at the “Annual Iconic Achievement Release Conference of China Tourism Research Institute” hosted by our institute, Dr. Guo Na from the Planning and Leisure Research Institute of China Tourism Research Institute, on behalf of the research group, released the core viewpoints and main data of the “China Domestic Tourism Development Report (2023-2024)” (hereinafter referred to as the “Report”). This report was compiled by an expert team organized by the Planning and Leisure Research Institute of China Tourism Research Institute, and is the 13th research report published consecutively since 2011.
The report relies on tourism economic monitoring and early warning data, tourist flow data, domestic tourism sampling survey data, and tourism statistics data from various provinces of the China Tourism Research Institute (Data Center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism) to study the source market, destination market, and tourism flow characteristics of domestic tourism.
1、 In 2023, domestic tourism enters a new channel of rapid recovery
The number of tourists and tourism revenue during major holidays in 2023 have both increased to a certain extent compared to 2022 , showing a trend of high opening and stable growth throughout the year. Especially during the 8-day long holiday of “Mid Autumn Festival+National Day”, the number of domestic tourists and domestic tourism revenue have both recovered to the level of 2019, with a slight increase. The number of people traveling during the 8-day period of “Mid Autumn Festival+National Day” increased by 4.1% year-on-year in 2019, and tourism revenue increased by 1.5% year-on-year in 2019.
The encouragement of normalized travel and related policies has promoted the rapid recovery of medium and long-distance tourism, resulting in a significant increase in tourist travel distance and destination leisure radius. Especially during the holidays of May Day, Mid Autumn Festival, and National Day, the recreational radius of destinations has slightly increased compared to 2019.
Micro indicators such as tourist travel distance and destination recreational radius during holidays indicate that the domestic tourism market has returned to a normal pace of development.
It is expected that the number of domestic tourists in China will approach 4.9 billion in 2023, a year-on-year increase of about 90%; Realize domestic tourism revenue of approximately 4.9 trillion yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 140%. Compared to 2019, they have recovered to 81% and 86% respectively.
2、 Market sinking and demand upgrading, tourism has become a ubiquitous way of life for the people
From a spatial perspective, as mass tourism enters a new stage of comprehensive development, more and more residents in lower tier cities and rural areas are joining in tourism activities, becoming a new driving force for tourism consumption. Tourism has become a ubiquitous daily lifestyle for the people. The data shows that the average age of the main group buying their first plane ticket has dropped to 20 to 25 years old, with nearly half of the tourists coming from third tier and below cities. The monthly monitoring data of urban and rural travel in 2023 by the China Tourism Research Institute (Data Center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism) shows that the gap in travel rates between urban and rural residents is converging month by month. During the Spring Festival holiday, due to a large number of rural residents working outside returning to their hometowns to visit relatives and friends, the gap between the two has reached the smallest level of the year.
This is also a significant feature and long-term trend of the comprehensive development stage of mass tourism. The continuous emergence of new tourism demands and segmented markets has driven the creative improvement and innovative development of tourism scenes, products, and services. Research has found that special forces tourism, reverse tourism, chapter gathering, check-in tourism, “entering Zibo to roast” food tour, tea making ceremony tour around the stove, city walk, village super village BA, 45 degree lying flat, immersive, study tour, summer escape, cold avoidance, health tourism, self driving travel, and leisure vacation combined with travel, which are deeply loved by young people, are all hot tourism terms in 2023.
In the past three years, high-frequency short distance travel, represented by urban leisure, surrounding tourism, and rural tourism, has become the main mode of travel for national tourism. The epidemic has made people more aware of the beautiful scenery around them and more willing to experience the beautiful daily life. As a result, close range tourism has solidified its fundamental market position in the tourism economy system and continues to influence the development pattern of the tourism economy. Despite the comprehensive recovery of the domestic tourism market and the continuous expansion of people’s travel distance and destination recreational radius, close range tourism remains the fundamental support for the development of domestic tourism. Monitoring data shows that the number of tourists visiting the surrounding area in 2023 is showing an accelerated growth trend amidst seasonal fluctuations.
3、 The characteristics of urban agglomerations as both source and destination areas are obvious
According to the calculation of the national proportion of provincial passenger flow by the China Tourism Research Institute (Data Center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism), from January to October 2023, 10 provinces including Shandong, Guangdong, Henan, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Hebei, Hubei, Hunan, Zhejiang, and Anhui have relatively leading tourist output and reception volumes, accounting for 56.6% and 56.4% of the total national tourist volume, respectively. It can be seen that there is a complete overlap between the top 10 source areas and the top 10 destination areas, and they are highly concentrated in the eastern and central regions.
Short distance intra provincial tourism is dominant, while long-distance inter provincial tourism has significantly decreased. Local people visiting the local area “has become the main force in the current domestic tourism market. From January to October 2023, the proportion of passenger flow within the province increased by 24.9 percentage points compared to 2019. The top 10 provinces (Guangdong, Shandong, Sichuan, Henan, Jiangsu, Hubei, Hunan, Hebei, Zhejiang, Anhui) carry nearly 60% of the domestic passenger flow, accounting for 57.1%. The inter provincial tourist flow is mainly concentrated between adjacent provinces. Among the top 100 inter provincial tourism flows in China from January to October 2023, 74 are tourism flows between adjacent provinces. Among the top 200 inter provincial tourist flows that account for 70% of the national total, there are 114 tourist flows between adjacent provinces.
The characteristics of urban agglomerations as both source and destination areas are significant. The travel of tourists between urban agglomerations constitutes a network of inter provincial tourism flows, known as the “mainline” and “branch line” networks. The strong tourism flow is mainly distributed within urban agglomerations such as Beijing Tianjin Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, Chengdu Chongqing, and Central Plains, forming the center of regional agglomeration of tourism flow and constituting the “mainline” of inter provincial tourism flow in China. Strong tourism flows occur between urban agglomerations, such as the Yangtze River Delta and Beijing Tianjin Hebei, Pearl River Delta, Central Plains Urban Agglomeration, Yangtze River Midstream Urban Agglomeration, Chengdu Chongqing and Central Plains Urban Agglomeration, Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Midstream Urban Agglomeration, Central Plains Urban Agglomeration, Yangtze River Delta and other urban agglomerations, forming the “branch lines” of inter provincial tourism flows in China and serving as the core support of the tourism flow network. Whether it is tourism flow within or between urban agglomerations, cities have always been the core carrier of source and destination reconstruction and the key to high-quality development of the tourism industry.
4.Suggestions for the Development of Domestic Tourism in 2024
At the national level, it is necessary to strengthen macro classification guidance for tourist destinations. For areas in the initial stage or with weak industrial foundations, create an environment to attract diversified capital and expand the tourism industry. For regions with a good foundation in the tourism industry, fully leverage the “tourism+” function, promote the integration and development of tourism with cultural, sports, transportation, food, sports, entertainment, and other industries, optimize the supply structure of tourism products, and “optimize” the quality of the tourism industry.
At all levels, guide social investment, fully leverage market forces, continuously meet the upgrading needs of urban residents’ tourism, and tilt more policy resources towards rural areas and central and western regions, so that rural residents who have bid farewell to material poverty can also enjoy spiritual upgrading needs such as culture, leisure, and tourism.
Local governments should be guided by market demand and focus on creating shared living spaces and contemporary scenes between hosts and guests. Guide and support the tourism utilization of tourist attractions, resorts, leisure blocks, commercial districts, cultural and museum venues, and suburban parks in various regions; To meet the practical needs of close range tourism and local leisure, we have launched a number of suburban parks, community parks, urban greenways, and scenic tourist routes and leisure projects to enrich our product supply.
Various regions should grasp the cultural and tourism needs of tourists, and creatively integrate excellent traditional Chinese culture, intangible cultural heritage, local characteristic culture, etc. into the new modern tourism space through government public and commercial forces. Through innovative transformation and creative development, the quality of tourism experience can be improved.
