Quarterly domestic tourist arrivals in China Q4 2019-Q4 2023

In the last quarter of 2023, approximately 1.22 billion domestic tourist trips were made in China, significantly exceeding the figure for the same period in 2022. As COVID-19 restrictions led to a halt in inbound tourism, revenues from the tourist industry in China during that time period were almost fully generated by domestic demand.

Domestic travel and COVID-19 policies

Since the entire city of Wuhan was locked down during the initial outbreak of the pandemic in late 2019, China continued with stringent pandemic policies to minimize case numbers, implementing mass testing, contact tracing apps, mandatory quarantine, and imposed citywide lockdowns.
This period witnessed a near cessation of international travel, and the annual number of domestic trips declined to around half of what it was before the pandemic. However, with increasing cases and public dissent against the government's restrictive containment measures, China abandoned its zero-COVID policy and began to ease pandemic regulations in December 2022.

Post-pandemic tourism in China

Amid the post-pandemic recovery, China’s tourism sector is showing a robust resurgence. As of May 1, 2023, the domestic tourist market has returned to the pre-pandemic levels, reporting a total revenue of over 148 billion yuan. Although China had resumed outbound travel at the beginning of 2023, the share of tourists traveling overseas was still relatively small, related to the fact that the airlines have not yet reinstalled all flights.