Tourism booming during China’s National Day holiday
Tourism has been booming in China during the National Day holiday, benefiting the economy of China and many other countries, official data on Sunday showed.
One of China’s two Golden Weeks, the National Day holiday saw a surge in tourist revenue along with passenger flows. This year the holiday was extended by one day as the Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Cake Festival, fell on October 4.
A total of 705 million tourists travelled around the country during the holiday, generating 583.6 billion yuan (about 87.7 billion US dollars) of revenue, the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) said.
The two figures represented increase of 11.9 per cent and 13.9 per cent year on year respectively, the CNTA said. Provinces with major scenic spots have seen rising numbers of tourists, with southwestern Guizhou having hosted over 46 million tourists who spent 30.5 billion yuan during the eight days, up 42.1 per cent and 43.5 per cent year on year respectively, said the CNTA. Inner Mongolia in north China was visited by 106.2 million tourists who spent 8.3 billion yuan, up 24.5 per cent and 38.3 per cent respectively.
Most Chinese have chosen to indulge in food, cultural and rural tourism this-
year. Theme parks, museums and traditional culture streets have also seen an obvious growth in the number of visitors, according to the CNTA.
The booming tourism was accompanied by busy traffic. Take railway as an example, over 110 million trips by railway have been made since the holiday travel rush started on September 28, the China Railway Corporation (CRC) said. The CRC scheduled thousands of extra trains during the holiday to ensure smooth travel. Likely, airports have seen a growing number of passengers, and highways have been burdened by more vehicles.
The economic impacts of China’s mobile population have also been felt worldwide as more Chinese have opted to travel overseas.
Data complied by the CNTA showed that about six million Chinese from nearly 300 cities travelled to 1155 cities in 88 countries or regions during the National Day holiday.