China consumer: Dragon Boat holiday saw lukewarm sentiment

Research evidence excerpt

China consumer: Dragon Boat holiday saw lukewarm sentiment

Global Markets Research

22 June 2026China consumer

EQUITY: CONSUMER RELATED

Dragon Boat holiday saw lukewarm sentiment Research Analysts

China Consumer Related

Flattish tourism traffic trend during the holiday Jizhoujizhou.dong@nomura.comDong, CFA - NIHK

+852 2252 1554

Overall tourism traffic was flat during Dragon Boat holiday Summer Qian - NIHK

China tourism traffic performance was lackluster during the Dragon Boat holiday (19-21 summer.qian@nomura.com

June). According to the Ministry of Transportation (link), overall tourism traffic during the +852 2252 6220

Dragon Boat holiday reached c.648mn, with average daily tourism traffic at c.216mn,

showing a flattish trend y-y (even slower than the 3.5% and 8.2% y-y growth registered

during the 2026 Labor Day holiday and Spring Festival holiday, respectively). We believe

the lackluster Dragon Boat holiday tourism traffic was mainly due to: 1) unfavourable

weather in South China, 2) increased travel fuel costs, and 3) continuation of weakness in

the broader consumption space.

• By travel modes, total railway tourism traffic increased 2.9% y-y to c.49mn during the

Dragon Boat holiday (was up 4.6% y-y during the Labor Day holiday); overall self-

driving tourism traffic turned to a downtrend, decreasing 2.1% y-y (was up 2.6% y-y

during the Labor Day holiday); while air travel traffic resumed its growth trajectory and

was up 0.6% y-y (vs a decline of 5.7% y-y during the Labor Day holiday).

• The outbound travel trend recovered marginally. According to the National

Immigration Administration, China’s overall cross-border tourism traffic during the

Dragon Boat holiday reached c.6.7mn, increasing by 12.9% y-y (was up 3.5% y-y

during the Labor Day holiday).