39% the drop in Chinese domestic travel revenue from 2019 to 2020, at 466 billion yuan

China's post-COVID air travel industry by the numbers

• The slide continues into 2021: tickets booked for the period January 28 – Feburary 24 were down 75.9% against those booked for the same period in 2019, despite a more encouraging figure of 57.3% having been recorded during December for advance bookings. (Forward Keys)
• Air China reported that passenger capacity on international routes dropped by 82.9 percent year-on-year in 2020, while China Eastern, which has shifted from carrying passengers to cargo, predicted a loss of 9.8 billion to 12.5 billion yuan for 2020 (Global Times)
• Destinations with the fastest recovery in the second half of 2020 included Tibet (25%+ YoY), Hainan (9%+ YoY), and Chongqing (6%+ YoY) (Jing Daily)
• Chinese travelers are more optimistic about making trips in 2021 than other countries in the Asia Pacific region: 77% feel positively about travel, compared with 54% of Australian travelers and about 30% of Japanese travelers (Expedia)
• While international travel is currently off the agenda, duty-free shopping is still a big tourist driver as rules have been relaxed on the southern island province of Hainan, visited by 65 million tourists in 2020. Sales doubled in 2020. (World Advertising Research Center)
• In February 2021, Chinese airlines offered dirt-cheap fares to stoke some demand: tickets for a two-hour Hainan Airlines flight from Beijing to Hangzhou on Feb. 12 were been available on travel website Ctrip.com for as little as 100 yuan ($15) – one-third of the cost of a roast duck at popular restaurant chain Da Dong (Aljazeera)