China looks past Covid as tourist bookings surge for the Lunar New Year

People in China are moving past the pandemic and going out to travel, preliminary data for the Lunar New Year holiday show.

"Pent-up demand is being released as many people rush to scenic spots, watch firework shows and crowd into restaurants and hotels," Nomura's chief China economist Ting Lu said in a report Thursday.

The country saw a surge in Covid infections in December, just as Beijing ended nearly three years of stringent contact tracing and border controls. The seven-day Lunar New Year, which officially began Saturday, is the first major holiday since the end of China's Covid restrictions. But even the tens of millions of trips each day is still down sharply from 2019 levels, the ministry said.

"Growth in passenger car retail sales in volume terms dropped noticeably to -21.0% y-o-y during 1-15 January from 3.0% in December, following the ending of the seven-month 50% purchase tax cut," he said in the report.

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