China sees booming domestic tourism, recovering int'l travels during Spring Festival holiday

China saw a better-than-expected performance in its domestic tourism market and a strong rebound in the number of inbound and outbound travelers during the just-concluded Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, also known as the Spring Festival holiday.

Domestic tourist trips totaled 474 million during the eight-day holiday from Feb. 10 to Feb. 17, which represented a 34.3 percent increase from the same period last year, and a 19 percent growth from the same period in 2019, according to China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

A drone photo taken on Feb. 5, 2024 shows a view of a Spring Festival fair by the Yellow River in Lanzhou, capital of northwest China's Gansu Province. (Xinhua/Ma Xiping)

Data from the ministry showed that domestic tourists spent about 632.69 billion yuan ($88.02 billion) during the holiday, a growth of 47.3 percent from the same period in 2023 and an increase of 7.7 percent from the same period in 2019.

The daily number of visits to China's 5A-rated tourist attractions, the highest rating for Chinese tourist sites, averaged 11,700 during the holiday, up 78.4 percent year on year, according to the China Tourism Academy.

During the Spring Festival holiday, national-level resorts across the country received an average of more than 19,700 visits per day, up 48.7 percent year on year, data from the China Tourism Academy showed.

Meanwhile, the number of inbound and outbound travelers also rebounded significantly during the holiday, according to data from the China Tourism Academy.

Some 6.83 million border entries and exits were recorded during the holiday, of which around 3.6 million were outbound travelers and about 3.23 million were arrivals from other countries. Both figures approximated the 2019 levels.

Dai Bin, president of the China Tourism Academy, attributed the substantial rise in the number of inbound travelers to China's unilateral and bilateral visa-free policies, and the effects of cultural exchange activities and tourism promotion efforts.

Chinese authorities, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Immigration Administration, People's Bank of China, and State Administration of Foreign Exchange, implemented a multitude of policies to facilitate cross-border tourism, injecting strong impetus into the recovery of inbound travels, according to Dai.

Data from the China Tourism Academy showed that on Feb. 9, China received more than 600,000 cross-border visits and saw a notable increase in the number of visitors from countries recently included in China's unilateral and bilateral visa-free policies.

This year's Spring Festival marked the first time the festival was celebrated since the United Nations (UN) General Assembly adopted a resolution designating the Lunar New Year as a UN floating holiday.

As Chinese people traveled abroad in droves during the holiday, they found that many countries were celebrating the Chinese Lunar New Year.

"Countries around the world have felt the growth momentum of China's rapidly recovering outbound tourism market during the Spring Festival and responded kindly to it," Dai said.

Data from online travel service platforms showed that Chinese tourists visited 1,754 cities across 115 countries during this year's Spring Festival holiday.

Tourist destinations across the world, including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and other member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Northeast Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea, Belt and Road countries in West Asia, North Africa, Central, Eastern and Western Europe, Australia and other countries in the South Pacific region, all saw notable growth in the number of Chinese tourists during the holiday, according to Dai.