Shenzhen residents took 7.95 million trips and spent 32.7 billion yuan (US$4.85 billion) during the seven-day Spring Festival holiday, an increase of 14.36 percent from the same period last year, according to the Shenzhen tourism authority. The significant growth in tourism spending has relieved worries that consumption may be slowing down amid economic uncertainties.
The city raked in 10.2 billion yuan in tourism revenue during the holiday, an increase of 4.21 percent year on year. During the seven days, the city received 7.36 million travelers, an increase of 7.96 percent over the same period of last year, and among them 6.03 million were mainland travelers and 1.32 million were inbound travelers from overseas.
Between Feb. 3-9, a total of 2.29 million people, including 1.08 million from other mainland cities, crossed Shenzhen’s checkpoints to go abroad for travel. The city’s 14 tourist spots received 1.65 million tourists, an increase of 8.28 percent from a year ago, generating 146 million yuan in revenue.
Nationwide, the tourism industry saw robust growth in both revenue and the number of visitors during the weeklong Spring Festival holiday, according to data from the Chinese Tourism Academy.
China recorded a total of 415 million trips made by tourists and grossed 513.9 billion yuan in tourism revenue between Feb. 4 to 10, an increase of 7.6 percent and 8.2 percent, respectively, year on year.
Thanks to higher incomes and better transport facilities, more and more Chinese people opted to travel during the Spring Festival holiday.
Various folk activities, including flower fairs, temple fairs, and dragon and lion dances, were held to celebrate the holiday and attract tourists.
As the demand for tourism boomed, an increasing number of people visited cultural places during the festival. The number of visitors to museums, galleries and libraries surged 40.5 percent, 44.2 percent and 40.6 percent, year on year.
Sanya, Xiamen and Harbin were the top three destinations favored by Chinese tourists making longer domestic journeys, while Chimelong Tourist Resort, Shanghai Disneyland Resort, and Mount Huangshan were the hottest destinations, according to a report by Lvmama.com, an online provider of tourism service.
The number of Chinese who traveled abroad during this year’s holiday increased 28 percent year on year. Many of them came from first- and second-tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Nanjing.