May Day holiday: Tourism revenue jumps 16% to $17.5b

Extended holiday witnessed a consumption boom in tourism, retail, catering and box office, with senior tourists driving the spending.

China saw 195 million tourists during the four-day holiday that ended on Saturday, a year-on-year increase of 13.7 percent, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The surge of travelers pushed tourism revenue to almost 117.67 billion yuan ($17.5 billion) nationwide, a 16.1 percent increase over last year.

During this year's May Day holiday, one day longer than that in 2018, visitors' footprint spread to 903 destinations across the world, according to online travel service Ctrip. Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou and Chongqing were the top five tourist source cities.

Beijing saw highest consumption both in inbound and outbound tourism, and per capita consumption in outbound tourism surpassed 7,000 yuan, followed by Dalian, Taiyuan, Xi'an and Shanghai.

Ctrip said more than half of its May Day holiday clients were tourists born in the 1980s and 1990s. In contrast, clients born in the 1960s and 1970s accounted for only 27 percent. However, those born in the 1950s were the highest spenders, with per capita spending of 3,629 yuan.

Beijing, Xiamen, Chongqing, Shanghai, Xi'an, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Kunming, Guangzhou and Guiyang were the top 10 most visited domestic cities during the holiday.