Hotel prices shot up, ride-hailing apps crashed, tickets to the Great Wall sold out: After more than nine long, housebound months, almost half a billion Chinese people are taking a vacation.
With the COVID-19 pandemic largely under control in China, the Golden Week holiday is putting on display the country’s confidence in its economic rebound and its public health measures. Through the first four days of the weeklong holiday that started Oct. 1, some 425 million people traveled domestically, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, nearly 80 percent of last year’s throngs.
The surge of activity stands in stark contrast to the rest of the world — the global tourism industry is expected to lose at least $1.2 trillion in 2020 — and underscores the relative strength of China’s economic recovery. As of September, the OECD forecast a 1.8 percent expansion this year, putting China alone among the Group of 20 on pace to expand.