Lunar New Year consumption mirrors China's economic strength

BOOMING TOURISM

The Spring Festival once again unleashed China's annual travel rush, with an increasing number of people opting to celebrate the holiday by traveling to tourist attractions.

There was a 19-percent year-on-year growth in the number of Chinese tourists during the Spring Festival holiday, according to data from Fliggy, an online tourism service provider.

The number of overseas trips taken by Chinese jumped by 28 percent year on year. Resort islands were highly popular, as the number of Chinese traveling to the destinations almost doubled.

Many domestic popular tourist spots are favored by Chinese tourists. Sanya, Xiamen and Harbin were the top three places for Chinese tourists making longer domestic journeys, while Chimelong Tourist Resort, Shanghai Disneyland Resort, and Mount Huangshan were the hottest destinations.

Domestic tourism revenues rose 8.2 percent year on year to 513.9 billion yuan during the holiday, according to data from the Chinese Tourism Academy.

Ctrip, a Shanghai-based online travel agency predicted that nearly 7 million outbound trips would be made by Chinese tourists during the holiday. Countries along the Belt and Road, such as Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates and Cambodia are among the most popular outbound destinations. Meanwhile, the number of visitors to East European countries increased by nearly 40 percent year on year.

Xiao Yinyuan, head of Ctrip's outbound travel business, predicted that there would be 30 million Chinese traveling to countries and regions along the Belt and Road in 2019.