Photo: Chinese tourists in Paris/ VCG

Travel has grown into a rigid demand for Chinese people’s happy life, Chinanews.com on reported Monday, citing the 2017 National Tourism Work Conference.

In 2017, a total of 5 billion domestic trips were made, and domestic tourism revenue totaled 4.57 trillion RMB, a 100 percent increase compared to 2012. A Chinese person traveled an average of 3.7 times last year.

The volume of foreign travelers among the 139 million inbound visits in 2017 increased by 7 percent compared to five years ago, totaling 29.1 million.

Over 129 million Chinese tourists traveled overseas in 2017, an increase of 9.17 percent on average every year since 2012.

Last year’s tourism investment reached 1.5 trillion RMB, which is 16 percent higher than the previous year. A total of 6/10 of that investment is from private capital, with the rest from state-owned enterprises and governments.

The 2017 National Tourism Work Conference was held in Xiamen on Jan. 8. Participants reviewed the past five years of development, and made quality the central task of this year’s work. Data from the conference reveals that traveling is an important indicator to evaluate the quality of modern life and a necessary part of living a happy life in China.