Alipay and WeChat Pay data shows China consumer spending over May holidays exceeded pre-Covid levels
Travel-related purchases by Chinese consumers using Alipay, a major digital payments app, jumped 70 per cent between April 29 and May 1, the first three days of the five-day national holiday, compared with the same period in 2019, according to an Alipay statement.
The figure was also triple last year's spending level, when major cities such as Shanghai were under stringent pandemic lockdowns, according to Alipay, which is owned by Ant Group, a fintech affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding. Alibaba also owns the South China Morning Post.
Meanwhile, average daily transactions at rival WeChat Pay, owned by Tencent Holdings, nearly tripled for transport-related spending during the first four days of this year's holiday compared with the same period in 2019, while the figure for hotel and tourist attractions jumped 93 per cent.
Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.
The Alipay and WeChat Pay digital wallets account for more than 90 per cent of the mobile payments market in China and their data paints a broad picture of a consumer spending recovery in the world's second-largest economy.
A total of 274 million people went on trips within the mainland during the holiday, 19 per cent more than the same period in 2019 before the pandemic hit, generating revenue of 148 billion yuan (US$21 billion), up 0.7 per cent, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
China's outbound tours have recovered more slowly. Reservations for overseas flights at major online travel agency Qunar.com were 55 per cent lower during this year's holiday than in 2019, but bookings for outbound tours - including transport and accommodation - on Filggy, another popular travel site owned by Alibaba, soared tenfold compared to last year.
Fliggy data showed that purchases of outbound tours during the Labour Day holiday more than tripled compared with the Lunar New Year holiday, even though the latter lasted for two more days. Just last month, Beijing made it easier to travel in and out of China, cancelling the requirement for a negative PCR test result from April 29 onwards. Instead, travellers can show a negative rapid antigen test result prior to travel.
The top destinations for mainland travellers during the Labour Day holiday were Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan and Malaysia, according to Fliggy.
In Hong Kong and Macau, the average daily spending via WeChat Pay registered growth of 137 per cent during this year's holiday compared with 2019.
Average spending by outbound Chinese travellers who used Alipay increased 40 per cent over the level in 2019, and figures in some European destinations, including France, Germany and Italy, more than doubled during this holiday period when compared to 2019, "highlighting the growing popularity of European destinations among Chinese travellers", Alipay said in the statement.
"The eagerness for a long-haul holiday among Chinese travellers has been unleashed during this year's Labour Day holiday ... representing a full recovery of confidence in tourism consumption," said Peng Han, director of the strategic research centre at the Ctrip Research Institute.
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2023 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 2023. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
