China saw a total of 251 million domestic trips and obtained a domestic tourism revenue of nearly 289.2 billion Yuan (about $45.46 billion) during the seven-day Spring Festival holiday, according to data released by the country’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism on Feb. 6.
The number of domestic trips made during the holiday was 2 percent less than that recorded in the same period of the previous year and represented a recovery of 73.9 percent of the level during the holiday in 2019 on a comparable basis, while the domestic revenue declined by 3.9 percent year on year and recovered to 56.3 percent of the level in the same period in 2019, showed the data.
No major accident occurred in the country’s culture and tourism sector, and the market functioned in a stable and orderly manner during the Spring Festival holiday, said the ministry.
While ensuring strict implementation of epidemic prevention and control measures and safe production, various regions in the country have ramped up efforts to increase the supply of cultural and tourism products and services to enrich people’s holiday life.
Visits to relatives and friends, leisure activities in urban areas, relaxation in the countryside, as well as recreational activities at ice and snow sports facilities were the choices of most people during the Spring Festival holiday.
Road trips, family tours, customized tours for small tourist groups, and trips that integrate experiential learning and intangible cultural heritage were the mainstream of trips during the just concluded holiday.
As rural tourism has continued to thrive in the country, many tourists spent the holiday in a specially rented rural house or enjoyed rural homestays during the festival.
Short-distance in-depth travel was particularly popular among Chinese people during the Spring Festival holiday, which has witnessed a growing trend toward high-quality and personalized short-distance tours.
Data showed that the proportions of intra-provincial and inter-provincial tours during the holiday were 78.3 percent and 21.7 percent, respectively.
As more and more people prefer to savor the flavor of Spring Festival in local tourist destinations, a significant increase occurred in the number of short-distance tours of various kinds during the holiday, including road trips, family trips, visits to theme parks, and ice and snow-themed tours.
At the same time, high-quality and personalized tourism services and products related to short-distance leisure trips, such as reservation for tour guide, camping in surrounding areas, car rental for road trips, and photo shoot tour, have better satisfied the demands of tourists during the Spring Festival holiday.
During the holiday, B&B hotels and hot-spring bath at B&B hotels won great favor among tourists on family trips. B&B hotels with detached houses were particularly popular, with renting a detached house in the countryside to spend the Spring Festival coming into fashion in the country.
Data from B&B booking platform Tujia.com showed that the number of orders for detached B&B hotel houses soared about 56 percent year on year during the recently concluded holiday.
In Beijing, it was not easy for tourists to get a room in rural B&B hotels during the holiday, when the number of reservations for rural B&B hotels in the city climbed 1.4 times from the same period in 2021, according to Tujia.com.
Ice and snow-themed activities witnessed fast growth in popularity and became a new highlight of travels during this year’s Spring Festival holiday. Driven by the continuously rising excitement and enthusiasm for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Beijing, ice and snow-themed tours featuring winter sports have become trendy among Chinese tourists.
