I am resuming this series as I am in Shanghai, and I got first hand look at the consumer spending here. Travel industry grew very fast in recent years due to several factors:
1) The golden week, where people got one week break in Chinese New Year, May 1, and Oct 1;
2) People have more money to spend in general, especially young people want to more DIY travel (freedom tour instead of the good old group tour);
3) More sites have been developed, e.g., Sanya, Lijiang (Yunan), etc.
But the travel industry is highly fragmented in China. The main players include: the scenic sites (Huangshan, e’Mei Shan etc.); the travel agency; the airlines; and the hotels. The profit margin of travel agency business is not high, especially the domestic travel.
A thousand words 