China's robust tourism, consumption in Dragon Boat Festival holiday

Contestants participate in a dragon boat race on Songhua River in Jilin City, northeast China's Jilin Province, June 10, 2024. (Xinhua/Yan Linyun)

BEIJING, June 11 (Xinhua) -- With surging trips and tourism spending, China's just finished Dragon Boat Festival holiday reflected a robust consumer market and steady economic recovery. Here are some notable facts and figures about the three-day holiday ending Monday.

Some 110 million domestic tourist trips were made during the period, up 6.3 percent year on year. The related consumption totaled 40.35 billion yuan (about 5.67 billion U.S. dollars), up 8.1 percent, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Data from the Ministry of Transport showed nearly 637.62 million inter-regional passenger traffic were seen during the holiday, 9.4 percent higher than that of last year and 16.6 percent higher than pre-pandemic 2019. Among them, 583.11 million trips were made on road, making the largest contribution to the total passenger traffic.

Tourists gravitated toward festive events. Cities known for dragon boat races, including south China's Foshan City and central China's Yueyang City, saw surging car rental orders and travel orders due to visitor inflows, said Ctrip, an online travel agency.

Cultural attractions found favor in more tourists during the past holiday. Travel orders were up significantly in Xianyang City, the capital city of the ancient Qin Dynasty, Deyang City, which boasts the Sanxingdui Ruins, a relics site dating back to 4,500 years to 3,000 years ago, and Jingdezhen City, deemed China's "porcelain capital," according to Ctrip.

The traditional festival also lured overseas tourists. The number of inbound trips ordered on the Ctrip platform soared 115 percent from a year ago, with most tourists from the United States, followed by Britain and Australia.

The National Immigration Administration said foreign nationals made 507,000 entry and exit trips in China in the period, up 57 percent year on year.

Moreover, the holiday witnessed stronger consumer sentiment as the domestic potential continued to be unleashed.

Data from Meituan, a leading e-commerce platform, showed daily online service deals, such as food delivery and meal coupon purchases, jumped 69 percent during the holiday from the same period in 2019. Meituan users in south China's Guangdong Province made the most orders in value, followed by Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

The Dragon Boat Festival, also called Duanwu Festival, is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar, which fell on Monday this year.

It commemorates Chinese renowned patriotic poet Qu Yuan, who was also a minister of the State of Chu during the Warring States Period (475 B.C.-221 B.C.). The dragon boat race is one of many traditions of this festival and it has been developed into a sport. ■