An unusual convergence of the Dragon Boat Festival and Children’s Day in China over the weekend led to a surge in domestic tourism bookings to campsites, amusement parks and other attractions, according to travel platforms.

A Hollywood film topped ticket presales for China’s Dragon Boat Festival, but latest data points to a subdued box office for the holiday season as the industry grapples with a string of underwhelming performances.

The rise of Pop Mart, and in particular its breakout character Labubu, signals a decisive pivot in consumer behaviour. What was once considered niche designer toy culture has evolved into a mass-market emotional movement. In China, and increasingly across global markets, consumers are no longer buying purely for function. They’re buying for meaning, identity, and emotional resonance.

Chinese tourists are now flooding through Singapore’s Changi Airport in ever-greater numbers. The Southeast Asian nation now offers a whole host of activities that fit the changing tastes of Chinese travellers, as well as having a number of cultural and language alignments that help visitors easily acclimatize.

China’s Xinjiang – an ethnically diverse region that still faces Western sanctions over a slew of human-rights issues – plans to open up to more foreign visitors, as the local government strives to boost tourism and diversify the regional economy.

An extended period of weak consumer sentiment in China has been taking its toll across many sectors and travel retail did not escape last year. By far the biggest player in the market, China Duty Free Group (CDFG) - part of China Tourism Group Duty Free Corporation (CTG), listed on both the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges - felt the impact.

The growing spontaneity of travel planning among Chinese outbound travellers has been identified as a 'defining trend' in the latest China Outbound Travel Sentiment Survey for Q1 from China Trading Desk. TRBusiness assesses the indicators and what it means for travel retail in 2025 and beyond.

When we first launched the China Travel Dashboard in 2023, we set out to solve a specific problem: how to bring clarity and real-time intelligence to one of the fastest-evolving sectors in global travel — Chinese outbound tourism. What began as a tool for marketers quickly became essential for a broader set of stakeholders: financial planners, airport operators, supply chain strategists, and luxury retail managers, journalists  —  all trying to navigate the shifting tides of

In the 1990s, as Beijing loosened Mao-era restrictions on travel, millions of Chinese left the country for the first time, triggering a rush by companies offering group trips where these new travelers could move smoothly from charter flight to private bus to all-inclusive hotel. For decades, Chinese vacationers could be seen following umbrella-wielding guides around Kyoto, Paris or Venice—including frequent stops at shops offering everything from Eiffel Tower trinkets to $10,