Trips on mainland rise, net $761 billion in revenue

BEIJING — China’s rapid growth in domestic tourism continued in 2018 when the country recorded a total of 5.54 billion domestic tourist trips, up nearly 11 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Domestic traveling brought a total of 5.13 trillion yuan ($761 billion) in revenue to the tourism sector last year, registering a 12-percent increase compared with 2017, according to the ministry.

Between Feb 4 and 10, China recorded 415 million trips made by tourists and grossed nearly 514 billion yuan in tourism revenue, up 7.6 percent and 8.2 percent, respectively, year-on-year, the Chinese Tourism Academy said.

The Ministry of Commerce said last week the country’s retail and catering industries garnered more than 1 trillion yuan in sales during the week-long Spring Festival holiday, an increase of 8.5 percent from the same period of last year.

With growing cultural consumption demand by residents, China saw its per-capita expenditure on consumption of education, cultural and entertainment products increase 6.7 percent to 2,226 yuan in 2018, accounting for 11 percent of per-capita consumption expenditure, said the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

People’s cultural and tourism consumption expenditure continued to increase and has evolved to become a new economic growth area, according to ministry officials.

They told media the supply of quality cultural and tourism products during the holiday has improved a lot, and called for efforts to promote winter sports and springwater tours.