Source page: McKinsey & Company
Commentary
Domestic tourists are back inside mainland China
COVID-19 | China | Travel
February 3, 2021 – Since the spring, China’s domestic air travel has bounced back almost completely. Bookings at luxury and upper-tier hotels are up, along with an increase in travel by rail and sea.
To read the article, see “NEF Spotlight: Mapping the travel sector’s recovery,” January 26, 2021.
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Visual form
Multi-series line chart.
Layout / body structure
The chart is a single time-series plot with months from January through October 2020 on the horizontal axis and percentage change on the vertical axis. Read the lines left to right, then use the legend on the right to map each color to its travel category.
What is being compared
The chart compares year-on-year average change for six tourism and transport categories in mainland China: domestic air passengers, hotel nights, subway passengers, rail passengers, international air passengers, and cruise passengers. It is a category-versus-category recovery comparison across the same pandemic timeline.
Measurement system
The measurement is percentage change versus the prior year. The y-axis runs from positive territory down to negative 100 percent, so the reader tracks how deeply each category fell and how far it recovered back toward zero.
Visible structure inside the graphic
Six colored lines share the same grid, all dropping sharply in February before separating into distinct recovery paths. The lighter blue domestic lines climb steadily toward zero by late summer and early fall, while the darkest international and cruise lines stay pressed near the bottom of the chart.
Main takeaway from the visual
Domestic travel categories in China recover far faster than international ones, and some domestic measures almost return to prepandemic levels by September and October. The visual gap between the rising domestic lines and the near-flat bottom lines for international air and cruises is the core message.
Key standout values or extremes
Most categories plunge to roughly minus 80 to minus 100 percent in February. By September, the strongest domestic lines are at or just above zero, while international air passengers and cruise passengers remain close to minus 100 percent, making them the clearest laggards on the page.
Controls / sequence, when applicable
This is a static chart image with no in-chart controls to operate.
Companion media, when applicable
There is no separate companion audio or video; the chart image is the full visual on this page.