New characteristics of domestic tourism in the era of mass tourism: demand upgrade and market sinking - "China Domestic Tourism Development Annual Report 2024" released online

On March 26, our institute hosted the "Annual Landmark Achievements Release Conference of China Tourism Academy", and released a total of 8 landmark research results. Dr. Huang Huang, associate researcher of the Planning and Leisure Research Institute of China Tourism Academy (Data Center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism), released one of the landmark think tank results of the institute, "Annual Report on China's Domestic Tourism Development 2024" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") on behalf of the research team.

Relying on the tourism economic monitoring and early warning data, tourist flow data, domestic tourism sampling survey data, and tourism statistical data of various provinces from the China Tourism Academy (Data Center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism), the report studies the domestic tourism source market, destination market, and tourism flow characteristics.

I. Overall Characteristics of Domestic Tourism Development

1. The number of domestic tourists has steadily increased

According to the results of the domestic tourism sampling survey, the number of domestic tourists in 2024 will be 5.615 billion, an increase of 724 million from 2023, a growth of 14.8%.

Figure 1 Domestic tourism market size by quarter from 2011 to 2024: In the first quarter of 2024, the number of domestic tourists was 1.419 billion, a year-on-year increase of 16.7%; in the second quarter, the number of domestic tourists was 1.306 billion, a year-on-year increase of 11.8%; in the third quarter, the number of domestic tourists was 1.512 billion, a year-on-year increase of 17.2%; in the fourth quarter, the number of domestic tourists was 1.378 billion, a year-on-year increase of 13.2%.

Figure 2 Number of domestic tourists and domestic tourism expenditure in each quarter of 2024 2. Domestic tourism expenditure grows rapidly In 2024, domestic tourism expenditure will be 5.75 trillion yuan, an increase of 0.84 trillion yuan over 2023, a growth of 17.1%.

Figure 3 Growth rate of domestic tourist numbers and domestic tourism expenditure from 2011 to 2024 3. Domestic tourism per capita consumption hits a record high In 2024, the per capita domestic tourism per capita per trip consumption is 1024.04 yuan, an increase of 20.16 yuan from 1003.88 yuan in 2023, an increase of 2.0%. Among them, the per capita per trip consumption of urban residents is 1128.15 yuan, an increase of 1.4% from 1112.29 yuan in 2023; the per capita per trip consumption of rural residents is 666.67 yuan, an increase of 2.1% from 653.13 yuan in 2023.

Figure 4 Per capita domestic tourism consumption from 2011 to 2024

4. The holiday tourism market is stable and orderly. With the improvement of people's living standards and the enhancement of leisure awareness, a large number of people choose to travel during holidays. In 2024, the number of tourists traveling during New Year's Day, Spring Festival, Qingming Festival, May Day, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day increased by 154.7%, 53.9%, 395.8%, 7.7%, 3.8% and 5.6% respectively compared with 2023.

Figure 5 Holiday tourist numbers and tourism expenditure in 2023-2024

2. Domestic tourism shows a trend of market sinking and demand upgrading 1. Market sinking expands domestic tourism market space The tourism source market of my country's first- and second-tier cities is gradually becoming mature and saturated. Low-tier cities, counties and rural areas have become new growth points for domestic tourism sources while serving as important domestic tourism destinations. More and more residents of low-tier cities, counties and rural areas are participating in domestic tourism activities, becoming a new driving force for tourism consumption. Tourism has been integrated into the daily lives of urban and rural residents. In 2024, segmented tourism markets such as self-driving tours, surrounding tours, rural tours, weekend tours, night tours, ice and snow, study tours, and health care will provide more choices for urban and rural residents to travel. The travel willingness of residents in low-tier cities, counties and rural areas has been released, laying the foundation for further expanding the endogenous growth space of tourism. The demand upgrade of residents in low-tier cities, counties and rural areas has promoted the sinking increase of the tourism market and further consolidated the market foundation for high-quality development of the tourism industry. A special survey by the China Tourism Research Institute shows that 78.2% of rural residents in my country have the intention to travel. The share of rural residents in the Labor Day tourism market will increase from 4.5% in 2022 to 10.5% in 2024. In the first three quarters of 2024, the number of rural residents traveling nationwide accounted for 22.8% of the number of domestic tourists. The growth rate of domestic tourists and travel expenditure were 1.9 and 5.4 percentage points higher than those of urban residents, respectively. The contribution rate of rural residents to the growth of national tourists reached 24.7%.

2. Demand upgrading drives high-quality development of tourism supply. The tourism industry is increasingly becoming a people's livelihood industry and a happiness industry with distinct characteristics of the times. Demand market segmentation and quality upgrading have become prominent features of domestic tourism.

"One old and one young" has become the highlight and focus of domestic tourism. Products such as elderly tourism, travel and health care, study tours, and parent-child tourism have broad prospects. In 2024, the number of elderly people over 60 years old in my country will reach 310 million, and the aging rate of the population will reach 22.0%. According to the latest tourism sampling survey data, middle-aged and elderly tourists over the age of 45 traveled a total of 1.194 billion times, accounting for 36.81% of the domestic tourism source market, becoming an important source of tourists in the domestic tourism market. At the same time, parents are increasingly inclined to help their children understand the world, broaden their horizons and increase their knowledge through travel. The number of young tourists aged 14 and under has increased rapidly, and the demand for youth study tours has continued to grow. Qufu, an important study tourism city, received a total of 1.367 million youth studies in the first half of 2024, a year-on-year increase of 24.3%.

The domestic tourism market is entering a new era of rational consumption with diversification, personalization and quality. New ways of tourism such as special forces tourism, healing tourism, night tourism, migratory bird travel, summer and winter escape continue to emerge. According to a survey by the China Tourism Research Institute, 45.5% of tourists value the food experience during their trip, and 59.2% of tourists are willing to have a deeper understanding of the food culture of the destination during their travel. The new generation of elderly people travel domestically eight times a year on average, spending more than thousands of yuan on each trip. 84% of elderly tourists hope to enjoy better tourism products and services, and 71% of the elderly hope to use products designed specifically for the elderly. More and more tourists are pursuing the experience and freedom of their travel itineraries, and are more willing to pay for the emotional value of pleasing themselves rather than the functional value of following the crowd.

3. The trend of localization of tourism space and high frequency of tourism time In recent years, domestic tourism has shown significant localization and short-distance characteristics, and intra-provincial tourist flow accounts for the majority of domestic tourist flow. According to a survey by the China Tourism Research Institute, in 2024, short-distance intra-provincial tourist flow accounted for 74.9% of all domestic tourist flow, while long-distance inter-provincial tourist flow accounted for only 25.1%. Inter-provincial tourist flow is mainly manifested in the fact that neighboring provinces are each other's source and destination, and domestic tourist flow has a significant attenuation characteristic with increasing distance. 83.5% of urban tourists in Shanghai come from the Yangtze River Delta, 60% in Beijing come from Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, and 90% in Guangzhou come from the Pearl River Delta.

The rapid growth of urban tourism, rural tourism, surrounding tourism and weekend tourism has led to an increase in the frequency of domestic tourism. In 2023, weekends only accounted for 28.6% of the whole year, but weekend tourism accounted for 41.1% of the total number of domestic tourists throughout the year. Short-term, short-distance and high-frequency are the prominent characteristics of weekend tourism. During the Qingming Festival, Labor Day and Dragon Boat Festival holidays in 2024, 80.1% of surrounding tourists had more than two travel experiences, 53.5% of surrounding tourists chose to travel in the suburbs and cities, and 64.7% of surrounding tourists had a cumulative travel time of less than 2 days. From January to September 2024, the penetration rate of my country's rural tourism market reached 35.88%, and a large number of rural tourism activities were carried out on weekdays and weekends, showing a high-frequency feature.

Figure 6 Distribution of domestic travel distances in 2024

Figure 7 Distribution of travel time for domestic rural tourism in 2024 4. Self-driving tourism has become the main mode of travel for short- and medium-distance tourism According to statistics from the Ministry of Transport, in 2023, my country will have an average of more than 160 million cross-regional trips per day, of which 150 million will travel by road. Of the 56.56 billion road personnel flow in my country in 2023, the number of non-commercial passenger car trips is 45.55 billion, accounting for 80.5%. Self-driving tourism has become the main mode of travel for short- and medium-distance tourism in China, and domestic tourists have an increasingly obvious demand for free control of itinerary arrangements, route selection, and time rhythm. According to a survey by the China Tourism Research Institute, the proportion of domestic tourists who choose to drive during the six holidays from the Spring Festival to the National Day in 2024 is as high as 49.3%. "Short distance and short time consumption" are the prominent characteristics of self-driving tourism. Self-driving tourists who choose to travel around the area account for 70.6%, self-driving tourists with a travel time of less than 12 hours account for 49.9%, and self-driving tourists with a travel distance of less than 80 kilometers account for 50.0%.

Figure 8 Distribution of domestic rural tourism travel time in 2024 III. Characteristics of domestic tourism source market 1. The urban and rural source market presents a dual structure From the perspective of urban and rural division, urban residents are still the main source market for domestic tourism in my country. In 2024, urban tourists will travel domestically 4.37 billion times, accounting for 77.83%; rural tourists will travel domestically 1.245 billion times, accounting for 22.17%. Against the background of the continuous increase in the domestic tourism travel rate of urban residents and the steady advancement of population urbanization, it is expected that the characteristics of urban tourists occupying the main body of the domestic tourism source market in my country will continue for a long time.

Figure 9: Urban-rural division of domestic tourism source market from 2016 to 2024 2. Visiting relatives and friends is the main purpose of travel. From the perspective of travel purpose composition, visiting relatives and friends is the main purpose of domestic tourists. 45.0% of urban domestic tourists travel for visiting relatives and friends, while 44.9% of rural domestic tourists travel for visiting relatives and friends.

Figure 10 Composition of travel purposes of domestic tourists in cities and towns

Figure 11 Composition of travel purposes of rural domestic tourists 3. The eastern region accounts for half of the national source market Taking into account factors such as the number of trips and length of stay of domestic tourists, the eastern region accounted for 49.7% of the domestic tourism source market in 2023, the western region accounted for 25.6%, the central region accounted for 22.1%, and the northeastern region accounted for only 2.7%. The eastern region accounts for nearly half of the domestic tourism source market, and is the main source of domestic tourism and the key target area for tourism marketing.

Figure 12 Domestic tourism source market size in various regions in 2023. By province, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Chongqing, Jiangsu, Hubei and other provinces will have the largest domestic tourism source market size in 2023, and Shanghai, Zhejiang, Chongqing, Beijing, Hubei and other provinces will have the highest domestic tourism travel rate.

Figure 13 Domestic tourism source market size and travel rate index of each province in 2023 IV. Characteristics of domestic tourism destination market 1. Domestic tourism expenditure in the eastern region accounts for nearly 40% of the national total In 2023, there are significant differences in domestic tourism expenditure among various regions of the country. Among them, domestic tourism expenditure in the eastern region accounts for 38.6% of the national total. Domestic tourism expenditure in the central and western regions accounts for 24.0% and 30.6% of the national total, respectively. The region with the lowest domestic tourism expenditure is the Northeast, which accounts for only 6.8% of the national total.

Figure 14 Domestic tourism expenditure share by region in 2023

2. The number of tourists in the western region is gradually approaching that in the eastern region. In 2023, the gap between the number of domestic tourists received in the eastern and western regions gradually narrowed, accounting for 35.7% and 32.1% of the country respectively. The number of domestic tourists received in the central region accounted for 25.7% of the country. The number of domestic tourists received in the northeast region was the least, accounting for only 6.5% of the country.

Figure 15 Domestic tourist population share in each region in 2023 3. Eastern region leads by a large margin in per capita tourism consumption In 2023, per capita domestic tourism consumption in the four major regions still varies greatly among regions across the country. Among them, the eastern region has the highest per capita domestic tourism consumption, reaching 1,254.4 yuan. The northeastern and western regions are followed, with per capita domestic tourism consumption of 1,198.8 yuan and 1,102.3 yuan respectively, while the central region has the lowest per capita domestic tourism consumption, which is 1,082.2 yuan.

Figure 16 Domestic tourism per capita consumption in various regions in 2023

V. Characteristics of domestic tourism flows 1. Intra-province tourist flows account for three-quarters of domestic tourist flows According to a survey by the China Tourism Academy, domestic tourist flows in 2024 showed significant localization and short-distance characteristics. Short-distance intra-province tourist flows accounted for 74.9% of all domestic tourist flows, while long-distance inter-province tourist flows accounted for only 25.1%.

Figure 17 Proportion of intra-provincial and inter-provincial tourist flows in 2024

2. Inter-provincial tourist flows are concentrated between adjacent provinces. Inter-provincial tourist flows show the characteristics of adjacent provinces being each other's source and destination. Among the top 100 inter-provincial tourist flows in 2024, 69 tourist flows are between adjacent provinces, and only 31 tourist flows are between non-adjacent provinces.

Table 1 Major inter-provincial tourist flow trends in 2024

Among the 52 important inter-provincial tourist flows with the eastern region as the source, the main inter-provincial tourist destinations are Zhejiang Province, Guangdong Province, Hebei Province, Jiangsu Province, Shandong Province and other places.

Among the 27 important inter-provincial tourist flows with the central region as the source, the main inter-provincial tourist destinations are mainly Shanxi Province, Anhui Province, Jiangxi Province, Henan Province, Hubei Province, Hunan Province and other places.

Among the 16 important inter-provincial tourist flows with the western region as the source, the main inter-provincial tourist destinations are Guizhou Province, Yunnan Province, Sichuan Province, Chongqing City and other places.

Among the five important inter-provincial tourist flows with Northeast China as the source region, the main inter-provincial tourist destinations are Beijing, Liaoning Province, Jilin Province and Hebei Province.

3. Intra-provincial tourist traffic is concentrated in provinces with large populations. In 2024, the top 10 provinces in terms of passenger traffic are Guangdong, Shandong, Sichuan, Henan, Jiangsu, Hubei, Hebei, Hunan, Zhejiang and Anhui. It can be seen that provinces with more intra-provincial tourist traffic are mainly concentrated in provinces with large populations.

4. The top 10 inter-provincial tourist source areas in the country In 2024, calculated based on the outflow of inter-provincial tourist flows, the top 10 inter-provincial tourist source areas in the country are Shandong Province, Jiangsu Province, Guangdong Province, Henan Province, Hebei Province, Zhejiang Province, Beijing, Shanghai, Anhui Province, and Sichuan Province.

5. The top 10 inter-provincial tourist destinations in the country In 2024, calculated based on the inflow of inter-provincial tourist passenger flows, the top 10 inter-provincial tourist destinations in the country are Jiangsu Province, Zhejiang Province, Hebei Province, Guangdong Province, Sichuan Province, Anhui Province, Henan Province, Beijing, Hunan Province, and Shandong Province.

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