Shares in the travel and tourism sector are experiencing a significant uptick. At the time of writing, Tongcheng Travel (00780) has risen 5.21% to HK$12.93, while Trip.com-S (09961) is up 2.63% to HK$327.8. China Travel HK (00308) has also gained 1.9%, trading at HK$1.07.

This positive momentum follows the release of the national "15th Five-Year Plan for Building a Strong Tourism Nation" by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism on July 7th. This marks the first time the goal of becoming a "strong tourism nation" has been explicitly included in a plan title.

The plan outlines ambitious targets for 2030, aiming for a significant enhancement in public satisfaction and happiness derived from tourism. It calls for the continuous improvement of the public tourism service system and a sustained increase in public satisfaction with tourism services. Specific quantitative goals include achieving 8.3 billion domestic tourist trips and total domestic tourism expenditure reaching 7.7 trillion yuan, further highlighting the sector's growing accessibility and economic impact.

Analysts are optimistic about the sector's prospects, suggesting the tourism industry is poised to maintain its current high-growth trajectory. Within the tourism value chain, recommendations focus on Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) and scenic spot operators, which are closely tied to leisure and outbound travel demand. Following these, transportation—highly correlated with travel volume—and hotels, driven by business travel needs, are also seen as key areas for investor attention.