|
Overall tourism earnings grew 10.5 percent in 2018 from a year
earlier to 5.97 trillion yuan ($881.49 billion), decelerating
from 2017's 15.1 percent gain and marking its slowest pace of
growth since 2008, when it was just 5.8 percent, data from the
Ministry of Culture and Tourism showed.
China has rolled out a flurry of stimulus measures since late
2018 to spur consumption from cars to home appliances amid a
broader economic slowdown, as it tackles financial risk at home
and navigates a trade war with the United States.
But many analysts still expect household spending to remain weak
despite policy support. Consumption growth in China is "very
likely" to slow further this year as the economy cools, the
commerce ministry said on Tuesday.
"We believe household consumption will likely be sluggish, given
the quick build-up of household debt, the lackluster income
growth outlook amid the economic slowdown and the cooling
property sector," analysts from Nomura wrote in a note on
Monday.
Revenue from tourism accounted for about 11 percent of GDP in
2018, the ministry said in a statement posted on its website.
Despite the slowdown in domestic tourism spending, more Chinese
are opting for international travel, continuing a trend that has
made Chinese the world's biggest spenders on international
tourism.
In 2018, Chinese people made 149 million international tourist
trips, up 14.7 percent from a year earlier, when growth was less
than half, the ministry added.
(Reporting by Yawen Chen and Kevin Yao; Editing by Nick Macfie)
[© 2019 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2019 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
