Holiday travel boom, buoyant movie market point to continuous economic recovery

During first four days of China’s Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays this year, the country has seen a recovery in consumer spending in terms of trips and transportation, with market confidence and vitality both on continuous rise.

Traffic across the national highway network reached nearly 60.5 million vehicles on Monday, an increase of 56.05 percent from the previous year, China’s Ministry of Transport said on Tuesday.

Chinese passengers made 16.47 million trips via train on Monday, and they are expected to make 16.35 million trips via train on Tuesday, with the rail operator planning to run 11,190 passenger trains, which include an added 889 trains.

From September 29 to October 1, the first three days of the eight-day holidays, China's domestic trips totaled 395 million, an increase of 75.8 percent year-on-year. Domestic tourism revenue reached 342.24 billion yuan ($46.9 billion), up 125.3 percent year-on-year, data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism showed on Monday. 

According to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, a total of 896 million domestic tourism trips are expected to be made during this year's Mid-Autumn and National Day holidays.

Outbound trips are also proving popular during this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays.

According to the National Immigration Administration, the national ports will witness a peak in border crossing traffic during the eight-day holidays, which is expected to reach an average of 1.58 million trips per day, an increase of about three times compared with the same period last year. 

On the eve of the “Golden Week” holidays, a number of countries issued visa-free policies to further attract Chinese tourists. According to Qunar.com, from when Thailand, Russia, Georgia have announced visa policies, outbound travel searches rose instantly. 

Since September, the number of inquiries for outbound group tours on the platform has increased fourfold year-on-year, and the number of visa inquiries has grown 2.3 times. 

The aviation sector has also bounced back with niche trip destinations becoming more accessible. The Middle East and Africa markets saw increased activity, with South Africa, Egypt, UAE and Kenya shining.

Flexible flight options have enabled these destinations to serve as air transit hubs, better connecting neighboring tourism markets, thus pulling the vitality of the entire Middle East and Africa markets.

The big screen also provided a window into the improving movie market during the Mid-Autumn and National Day holidays. 

China’s ticketing platform Maoyan reported that 12 new movies released during the two holidays have raked in 1.9 billion yuan ($260.2 million) at the box office as of 13:49 on Tuesday, exceeding the seven-day box office of the 1.4 billion yuan during 2022 National Day holidays. Domestic films dominated the top three spots. 

The anti-corruption film Under the Light, the third installment of the “Volunteers” trilogy The Volunteers: To The War (released to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the victory of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea (1950-53)), and the contemporary romance The Ex-Files 4 were the frontrunners. 

As of 16:10 on Tuesday, after six days of screening, the three films grossed 640 million yuan, 357 million yuan, and 507 million yuan respectively, according to Maoyan data.

Two acclaimed Chinese directors, Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, also generated a lot of buzz with their films Under the Light and The Volunteers: To The War, which premiered on the same day. The last time the two directors competed in the same period was in 2005, when Chen’s The Promise and Zhang’s Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles hit theaters only a week apart. 

For many insiders, the showdown between the two cinematic giants was a major highlight of the Mid-Autumn and National Day holidays. “Compared to other films, these two directors have relatively stable performances. The Volunteers: To The War is a war-themed film with a rather somber tone, while Under the Light is more commercially oriented and has more room for market growth,” Shanghai-based film critic Shi Chuan told Jiefang Daily. 

Romance film The Ex-Files 4 also impressed with its box office performance. Despite its low-key publicity before its release, it became a hot topic among the public thanks to the reputation of its previous three installments. The 12 films spanned a variety of genres such as war, action, romance and animation. 

However, film insiders also took into account the high demand for travel that affected the box office performance: the record-high traffic volume in many parts of the country reduced their enthusiasm to head to the cinema to some extent. 

Citing another box office tracker Dengta Data, this year’s National Day holidays box office is expected to be 4.6 billion yuan. 

As this year’s Mid-Autumn and National Day holidays were combined, the longer holidays also meant improved travel sentiment, which also dampened film insiders’ expectations over the box office performance, said Chen Jin, an analyst at Dengta Data. “The National Day holidays is the third largest period of the year in terms of volume after the Spring Festival holiday and summer vacation. With the holidays’  boost, this year' s total box office has exceeded 45 billion yuan as of now.”