CBN丨China’s tourism surged during 2024 New Year holidays

2024-01-04辟谣

Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.

Coming up on today’s program

China's tourism roars back during New Year's Day holiday, topping pre-pandemic levels;

China's first home-made cruise ship sets sail on maiden voyage.

Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours

China's tourism industry roared back to life during the just-concluded New Year's Day holiday, surpassing pre-pandemic levels in both visitor numbers and revenue.

Domestic destinations welcomed a staggering 135 million visitors over the three-day break, a staggering 155.3-percent surge compared to the same period last year, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism said on Monday. This figure even marks a 9.4 percent increase compared to 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted travel.

The holiday proved equally lucrative, with tourism-related revenue soaring over 200 percent year-on-year to over 79.7 billion yuan. Notably, this figure also stands 5.6 percent higher than that recorded in 2019.

During this year's New Year holiday, border control agencies nationwide inspected inbound and outbound travelers about 5.18 million times, a 4.7-fold increase compared to the New Year holiday in 2023. This is roughly in line with the figure seeing during the holiday in 2019, the administration said on Tuesday.

Travel numbers and tourism revenue were both up in multiple Chinese cities and provinces during the three-day break. Shanghai received over 7.18 million tourists during the holidays, up 16.3 percent year-on-year. And, a total of 170 scenic spots in Beijing greeted over 4.83 million of tourists, up 80.5 percent year-on-year.

Data from the tourism authority of Guangdong Province showed that the province received 14.48 million tourists during the holidays, surging 78.1 percent year-on-year. Tourism revenue hit 8.9 billion yuan, nearly doubling last year's figure, and was up 12.1 percent if compared to 2019.

Southwest China's Sichuan Province welcomed 9.15 million of tourists during the holidays, up 80.7 percent year-on-year, with ticket sales for scenic spots hitting 83.15 million yuan, up 89.6 percent year-on-year, according to the Sichuan tourism authority.

Thailand and China will permanently waive visa requirements for each other’s citizens from March, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said on Tuesday.

Around 214,000 people from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Malaysia entered China in December 2023, an increase of 28.5 percent compared with November, after a visa-free policy for ordinary passport holders from these countries took effect on Dec 1, according to the National Immigration Administration (NIA). Of these inbound trips, 118,000 were made by ordinary passport holders without a visa.

China on Monday formally started its fifth national economic census. Some 2.1 million enumerators will go into businesses and communities to collect and register economic data in 1.16 million census areas over the next nearly four months, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). China's national economic census takes place every five years.

China's manufacturing activity fell for the third month in a row in December, mainly affected by the off-season of some basic raw material industries. China’s manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) stood at 49 in December, official data showed on Sunday. The figure was 49.4 in November. Non-manufacturing PMI stood at 50.4 in December, up 0.2 percentage points from November, indicating accelerated expansion.

Moving on to regional highlights

The land port of Erenhot, the largest on the China-Mongolia border, registered record-high import and export freight volume last year, according to the local commerce bureau. As of Friday, the freight volume passing through the port in north China's Inner Mongolia was over 19 million tons in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 34.1 percent.

Beibu Gulf Port in south China's Guangxi reported record container throughput in 2023. The port handled over 8 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers last year, up from around 7 million TEUs in 2022, according to the Beibu Gulf Port Co.

Greater Bay Area, Greater future

Dongguan in Guangdong province announced today to phase out interest rate floors on mortgages for first-time homebuyers, effective immediately, the same day as Foshan implements the same rule. Most banks in Dongguan have previously cut their first-home loan rates by 20 basis points (bps) off the benchmark loan prime rate (LPR), or at 4.1 percent. By the end of September, two dozens of Chinese cities have moved to cancel the interest rate floors on mortgage lending, central bank data showed.

China’s cabinet approved the construction of the number 3 and number 4 reactor units at China General Nuclear Power Corp's Taipingling Nuclear Power Station at the end of last month, bringing the total green lit in 2023 to eight. Costing a combined 40 billion yuan, they will each be capable of generating 1,209 megawatts of power each year. The Taipingling plant, located in Huizhou, Guangdong province, is the first nuclear power station in the Greater Bay Area to use the Hualong One and one of the first 「Hualong One」 fusion demonstration bases in the country.

Next on industry and company news

China's first domestically-built large cruise ship, the Adora Magic City, left a port in Shanghai on Monday afternoon for its commercial maiden voyage, opening up a new chapter for the country's shipbuilding and cruise industries. Carrying more than 3,000 passengers, the ship set off from the Shanghai Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal and is expected to reach Northeast Asian tourist destinations, including Japan and Korea, before returning on Sunday.

China's box office kicked off 2024 with a record high revenue of approximately 1.53 billion yuan for the three-day New Year's Day holiday. This figure surpassed the previous highest earnings of 1.3 billion yuan recorded in 2021, according to film data platforms Maoyan and Beacon. Meanwhile, the Chinese film market ended 2023 with a total box office earnings exceeding 54.91 billion yuan, marking the fourth-highest annual box office in Chinese film history. Data released by the China Film Administration on Monday showed that nearly 1.3 billion tickets were sold throughout the year.

China's leading oil and gas producer, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), officially took over from U.S. oil giant ExxonMobil as the lead contractor for Iraq's West Qurna 1 oilfield on Monday. The handover ceremony was held in Iraq's southern province of Basra with the attendance of Iraqi officials, Chinese diplomats, and representatives of CNPC, Basra Oil Company, ExxonMobil, and so on.

Chinese tech giant Baidu terminated its share purchase agreement with Nasdaq-listed Joyy, canceling a deal worth US$3.6 billion. According to a filing released yesterday, Baidu's affiliate Moon SPV decided to end its agreement with live stream platform operator Joyy, as purchase conditions had not been fully satisfied.

India has reportedly released two senior executives at the local unit of Chinese handset giant Vivo Communication Technology, who were recently arrested by the Indian anti-money laundering watchdog. An Indian court ordered the release of the chief executive and chief financial officer of Vivo India on Dec. 30, media reported today citing insiders at the company. Vivo has not yet released any statement.

Switching gears to financial news

Chinese and Hong Kong stocks ended 2023 with losses exceeding 10 percent. China’s blue chip CSI 300 Index registered an unprecedented third straight year of declines, falling 11 percent, while Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng slumped 14 percent for the year in a fourth year of declines. Net foreign buying via Stock Connect last year totaled roughly 44 billion yuan, the smallest since 2015.

More than 1,000 Chinese companies registered for pre-listing tutoring last year despite the sluggish capital market and stricter reviews on initial public offerings, down by 184 from the previous year, according to data provider Choice. Guangdong province ranked first among provincial-level regions with 166 firms, followed by Jiangsu province with 131, and Zhejiang province with 127. The three of them accounted for 42 percent of the total.

Wrapping up with a quick look at the stock market

Chinese stocks kicked off 2024 with losses on Tuesday, as the benchmark Shanghai Composite slid 0.4 percent and the Shenzhen Component dropped 1.3 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index also closed 1.5 percent lower, and the TECH index shed 1.3 percent.

Biz Word of the Day

Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. They may carry thousands of passengers in a single trip, and are some of the largest ships in the world by gross tonnage (GT), bigger than many cargo ships. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports of call, where passengers may go on tours known as "shore excursions".