Folklore tours spur consumption during Dragon Boat Festival

Hi everyone. I’m Stephanie LI.Coming up on today’s programChina saw 3% increase in cross-regional trips during Dragon Boat Festival, with folklore tours spurring consumption;BYD retains electric car crown in May.Here’s what you need to know about China in the past 24 hours China saw a robust growth in travel and tourism-related consumption during the just-concluded Dragon Boat Festival holiday, as the country's cultural appeal and spending momentum continued to draw crowds across major cities and provinces, official data released on Tuesday revealed.According to China's Ministry of Transport, an estimated 657 million inter-provincial trips were recorded during the three-day holiday, averaging 219 million trips per day, up 3 percent year-on-year. Railways played a central role, which handled 47.1 million passenger trips during the holiday, marking a 2.3 percent increase year-on-year. During the holiday, robust consumption growth in the culture and tourism market was highlighted by a surge in domestic folklore tourism bookings to short-distance destinations, amusement parks and other cultural attractions.From traditional dragon boat races and zongzi-making (sticky rice dumplings) workshops to immersive cultural experiences, these folklore events are empowering consumption scenarios with cultural elements.Data from online travel agency Qunar showed a spike of 2.5 times month-on-month in searches for "dragon boat," "Dragon Boat Festival" and "zongzi" as of Monday. The report showed significant 40 percent year-on-year growth for folk experience destinations.Bookings for cities with dragon boat traditions also saw significant surges. In Foshan, South China's Guangdong Province, total travel orders rose 167 percent, while in Miluo, Central China's Hunan Province, considered by many to be the birthplace of dragon boat culture, bookings jumped 85 percent, according to Trip.com. Strong demand for short-distance travel during the festival led to bookings increasing 23 percent year-on-year. Data from another travel agency Tongcheng Travel showed that in the first two days of the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, search for keywords related to "Dragon Boat Festival" and "intangible cultural heritage" nearly doubled year-on-year.Meanwhile, during the three-day holiday, the number of visits to travel tips related to domestic intangible cultural heritage markets increased by more than 300 percent year-on-year, per Tongcheng Travel.Experts attributed the boom to the heightened spending vigor spurred by the economic revival and government push for high-quality services consumption, highlighting the shift toward a more sophisticated consumption structure and diverse consumer needs, driven by overall industry upgrades.Global GDP growth is projected to slow from 3.3 percent in 2024 to 2.9 percent this year and the next year, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said on Tuesday.China on Sunday began implementing a trial policy that unilaterally grants visa-free entry to citizens of Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Uruguay. Under the policy, which will remain in effect through May 31, 2026, holders of ordinary passports from these five countries can enter China without a visa for up to 30 days.GBA expressThe Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area International Auto Show is expected to welcome a record number of visitors this year, according to the event's organizer. In the first three days, which coincided with the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, the GBA Auto Show attracted 450,000 visitors, an increase of 28 percent from a year earlier, according to data disclosed by the Shenzhen United Auto Show Management. The GBA Auto Show is held at the Shenzhen World Exhibition and Convention Center from May 31 to June 8, with over 110 car brands and 1,039 car models showcasing in the event. Some 4 billion yuan worth of transactions were completed at the GBA Auto Show between May 31 and yesterday, up 8 percent from a year earlier.Hong Kong logged an increase in tourist arrivals from the Chinese mainland during the first two days of the Dragon Boat Festival break, official data show. On Saturday and Sunday, the number of inbound passenger trips through all checkpoints exceeded 1.17 million. Among them, over 270,000 were made by mainland visitors, a surge of more than 7 percent compared to the same period last year.Industry and company newsMultiple Chinese carmakers reported year-on-year growth in their monthly sales in May. BYD’s sales reached 382,476 units, a year-on-year increase of 15.27 percent. Chery's car sales hit 205,732 in May, with NEV sales standing at 63,169, a surge of 47.7 percent year-on-year. Geely Auto’s Zeekr led Chinese NEV startups with 46,538 car deliveries last month, followed by Leapmotor, Li Auto, and Xpeng Motors. Xpeng deliveries surged 230 percent to 33,525 units from a year earlier. Xiaomi Auto’s deliveries exceeded 28,000 units in May.Huawei will release its new flagship Pura 80 series at a launch event on June 11, according to a teaser poster. The new phones will feature powerful camera capabilities and the tech giant's Harmony OS 5 operating system. Meanwhile, Vivo will release its next-gen foldable phone, the X Fold5, late this month, which will be lighter than the previous X Fold3, according to sources. Etihad Cargo, the cargo and logistics arm of the United Arab Emirates' Etihad Airways signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Ezhou Huahu Airport in Central China's Hubei Province on Monday. The partnership will focus on increasing flight frequencies, opening new routes and building joint solutions for cross-border e-commerce, cold chain logistics and high-value manufacturing.China's consumer goods trade-in program has generated 1.1 trillion yuan in sales in the first five months this year, the Ministry of Commerce said on Sunday. As of Saturday, nationwide trade-ins had fueled a surge in transactions, including 4.12 million vehicles, 77.62 million units of household appliances and 56.63 million units of digital products.China's box office earnings reached 459 million yuan during the three-day Dragon Boat Festival break as of 9 p.m. yesterday, according to movie data platform Beacon. “Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning” topped the chart with about 190 million yuan.Asia-Pacific highlightsChina and Bangladesh on Sunday signed a memorandum of understanding on strengthening economic cooperation in industrial chain and supply chain between the Ministry of Commerce of China and the Ministry of Finance of Bangladesh.Stock markets in Asia slipped on Monday amid investors' concerns over Washington's hike in steel and aluminum tariffs to 50 percent. In South Korea, steelmaker POSCO Holdings saw its shares sink 2.4 percent, while Hyundai Steel fell 2.66 percent.Vietnamese steelmakers Hoa Sen Group and Nam Kim Steel tumbled 2.8 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 ended down 1.3 percent and the Topix index dropped 0.87 percent.The total net profit of airlines from Asia Pacific, of which China accounts for 40 percent of the total traffic, is expected to expand 23 percent to USD4.9 billion this year, according to data from the IATA. Global airlines’ net profit will likely grow 11 percent to USD36 billion, and their revenue may reach a record USD979 billion in the period.