Indeed, China has been known as a market with consistently short booking windows, according to a report by the
World Travel & Tourism Council in 2021. In 2019, 70% of hotel bookings on travel agency Trip.com were made within three days of check-in. This ratio rose above 80% in the first two years of the pandemic, due to the high uncertainty of travel restrictions during the pandemic.
In July, Marriott International
lowered its growth forecast for revenue per available room for this year, citing “current weak demand and pricing trends” in China.
That pricing pressure is reflected across the industry including at domestic travel booking agency
Trip.com, which reported average rates for domestic hotels and flights
continued to decline this year.
During the Labor Day holiday in May — one of the country’s longest breaks of the year — China saw more domestic trips and tourism spending than in 2019, according to the
Ministry of Culture and Tourism. But the average spending per traveler is still below 2019 level
The trend of people opting for short-haul trips to smaller cities or counties will continue, Oxford Economics said, which could boost these local economies.
Travel demand during the upcoming Golden Week in early October is expected to surpass the 2019 level, the economists said.
When asked about the outlook for the second half of the year, Trip.com CFO Xiaofan Wang said the company had “very limited visibility due to the short booking windows.” The platform expects booking activities to pick up after the National Day holiday, given a lower base in the same period last year, it said.