Chinese tourists spent 31.3 billion yuan (US$3.8 billion) over the seven-day Spring Festival holiday period, up 8.1 percent over the same period last year, Wang Jun, executive director of the Office for Nationwide Tourism Coordination, said on Wednesday.
More than 69 million visits were made to tourism destinations, an increase of 9.1 percent from last year,
The Ministry of Commerce announced that total retail sales reached about 160 billion yuan (US$19.3 billion), up 16 percent over last year.
More than 2 million tourists visited Beijing, providing the tourism industry income of 1.8 billion yuan (US$217.5 million), an increase of 10.0 percent year-on-year.
The eastern metropolis of Shanghai received more than 2.4 million tourists during the seven-day holiday and garnered over 1.7 billion yuan (US$205.4 million) in earnings from tourism, up 10.4 percent from the same period last year, according to the local branch of the nationwide tourism coordination office.
The tourism coordination office said that 128 monitored commercial enterprises in 31 major tourist cities recorded sales of around 3 billion yuan (US$362 million), up 10.6 percent over the same period last year.
Some 130 catering enterprises garnered over 210 million yuan (US$25 million), a year-on-year rise of 13.3 percent.
Air travel brought 1.9 billion yuan (US$229.6 million) to the airline industry while rail passenger transport brought in 1.7 billion yuan (US$205.4 million) during the period.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China reported that around 2.3 million people traveled by air during the holiday, and around 145 million journeys were made by train according to Ministry of Railways estimates.
Shopping was a major activity during the holiday period. In Beijing alone, sales income for commercial enterprises was 30.0 million yuan (US$3.6 million), according to the local tourism coordination office.
Roughly 1.1 million people dined out in Beijing on the eve of the Lunar New Year, spending some 80.0 million yuan (US$9.7 million).
(China Daily February 17, 2005)
