China sees rise in Chinese New Year travel, but per capita spending remains flat

China logged an overall increase in travel during the just-concluded Chinese New Year break compared with last year’s holiday period, but analysts said spending per capita stayed flat.

The country saw 596 million domestic trips over the extended public holiday that ended on Monday, a year-on-year increase of 95 million, Xinhua reported. About 17.8 million cross-border trips were logged over the same period, it added.

Chinese New Year is a crucial period for the travel sector as hundreds of millions of people use the weeklong break to visit family and go on holiday. That was even more the case this year as the holiday ran for an unusually long nine days.

The number of people on the move in China went up 19 per cent during this year’s break over the same period in 2025, according to a Morgan Stanley calculation.

The New York-based investment bank said in a Tuesday research note that the average daily number of inbound and outbound travellers rose by 10.1 per cent year on year, while “key enterprises” saw a 5.7 per cent increase in retail and catering sales.

“Growth momentum” in China’s hospitality sector also strengthened over the break compared with previous long holidays, fellow investment bank Goldman Sachs said in a research note on Wednesday.

South China Morning Post