In the first half of 2025 Chinese travellers took 3.3bn domestic trips, up 20% from the same period last year. (Each ride on a plane or train is counted as one trip.) The total amount shelled out by these tourists surged by more than 15%. It was the first time travel spending in the first half of the year surpassed pre-pandemic levels. But per trip, tourists spent 4.3% less than a year ago. On average, Chinese travellers are spending only slightly more person now than they did in 2019. This can probably be explained by the addition of more lower-income travellers, reckons Joe Peissel of Trivium China, a consultancy.
Consumer sentiment is in the dumps this year in China’s flashiest cities. But in poorer, smaller cities in China’s interior—home to vast numbers of people—the mood is brighter. (Close to 1bn Chinese live outside the main metropolises.) The average growth rate for retail spending in five small cities in Henan province, for example, was nearly 8% in June (the most recent data available). Similarly, last year the cities where residents shelled out a lot of their disposable income—say 80%, versus the 60% more common in cities such as Beijing and Shanghai—tended to be small.
