China’s Spring Festival holiday spending rises beating the previous years record, according to data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, 474 million domestic tourism trips were made during the Spring Festival holiday, an increase of 34.3 percent over the same period last year and an increase of 19 percent on a comparable basis compared with the pre-pandemic level in 2019.
Domestic tourists have spent about 632.69 billion yuan (about 89.07 billion U.S. dollars) in total, up 7.7 percent from the same holiday period in 2019.
China Unicom’s data showed that compared with 2019, the traffic volume of people traveling in the Spring Festival of 2024 increased by 45 percent, with more than 14,000 popular tourist routes newly added.
On the Spring Festival Eve, the large domestic cruise ship “Adora Magic City,” carrying more than 4,500 passengers, left Shanghai Wusongkou International Cruise Terminal for a New Year journey.
As for the cinemas, the national box office during the holiday was 8.02 billion yuan, and the number of people watching movies was 163 million. The figures increased by 18.47 percent and 26.36 percent, respectively, compared with the Spring Festival holiday in 2023, both setting a new record in the same period, according to the China Film Administration.
Winter sports are gaining popularity beyond the country’s northeastern provinces. In December, the coastal city Longkou in east China’s Shandong Province opened its first ski resort, offering a new option for outdoor fun during the Spring Festival holiday.
“The enthusiasm of locals as well as tourists for skiing has surpassed our expectations. Many people specifically asked whether the resort is open during the Spring Festival holiday,” said the ski resort’s general manager Wang Bin.
