City sees 7.18m visits during New Year holiday

SHANGHAI recorded 7.18 million visits from tourists during the three-day New Year holiday, up 16.27 percent from the same period a year earlier, the city’s cultural and tourism authorities revealed yesterday.

The city reaped a tourism revenue of 11.8 billion yuan (US$1.66 billion), growing 24 percent, and the average occupancy rate of local hotels hit 60 percent, up 24 percentage points, according to the Shanghai Administration of Culture and Tourism.

The city prepared an array of activities, from a New Year run and sunrise appreciation to bell ringing and lantern fairs, during the holiday.

Longhua Temple in Xuhui District, where a bronze bell was rung at midnight on New Year’s Eve, welcomed the first inbound tour group of the city in 2024, while an ascent and health run activity was held at the iconic Oriental Pearl TV Tower yesterday.

People waited for the first ray of sunshine at Jinshanzui Fishing Village in Jinshan District, and dragon-themed activities enriched the holiday at Yuyuan Garden Malls.

Exhibitions such as the “Who is Leonardo da Vinci?” at Shanghai

Museum, and concerts, including the 2024 Shanghai New Year Concert by Shanghai Symphony, offered a feast.

According to online travel review website Mafengwo, Shanghai Disney Resort was the most popular domestic tourist attraction during the holiday, although the fireworks show was canceled on New Year’s Eve due to air pollution, followed by Yonghe Palace in Beijing and Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong.

Watching a fireworks show or going to a concert were the most popular ways of celebration, and generation Z, those born between 1995 and 2009, led holiday tourists, accounting for over 60 percent of the total, it said.

Online travel operator Trip.com said its holiday orders involving domestic destinations surged 168 percent from the same period last year, with growth was more significant for outbound destinations, hitting 388 percent.

Meanwhile, bookings for cruises during the holiday soared 231 percent from the same period last month and all tickets for the maiden commercial voyage of China’s first domestically built large cruise ship, the Adora Magic City, were sold out on Trip.com, it said.