Lifestyle
China's consumer spending on travel, activities and consumer goods was buoyant during the three-day New Year holiday from December 30, 2023 to January 1, 2024, with ice and snow tourism leading the way as domestic flight bookings to popular cities increased by 70 percent compared to the same period last year.
Major commercial districts and shopping centers nationwide saw a peak in foot traffic. In Shanghai alone, 35 key commercial districts registered a total of 15.48 million visits over the holiday. Out-of-town consumers contributed 6.5 billion yuan (about 920 million U.S. dollars) in spending during the holiday.
Data released by the Ministry of Commerce showed that holiday sales at key retail and hospitality enterprises nationwide increased by 11 percent year on year.
Data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and from booking platforms -- both online and offline, showed that city sightseeing, short-distance trips, and leisure travel remained popular during the holiday, with overall domestic tourism revenue tripling that of last year.
Data showed that younger travelers under the age of 50 accounted for over 80 percent of the holiday trips. Car rentals saw a rapid growth, with cities such as Chengdu, Urumqi, Beijing, and Sanya becoming popular destinations for self-driving trips.
"After a year of work, I want to take a load off and recharge for the new year. I wish that everything would be better in the year ahead," said Ma Ying, a tourist in Suzhou City in east China's Jiangsu Province.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism said there were 135 million tourist trips in China during the New Year holiday, a year-on-year growth of 155.3 percent, with domestic tourism revenue hitting 79.73 billion yuan, an increase of over 200 percent compared to last year.