BEIJING: Travel to destinations with rich Chinese folk activities and vibrant festivities accelerated during Dragon Boat Festival, driving up tourist numbers and consumption.
Figures unveiled by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism on Tuesday show that domestic destinations witnessed around 119 million visits during the three-day holiday, up 5.7 percent year-on-year.
These visits generated consumption of over 42.7 billion yuan ($5.94 billion), a year-on-year increase of about 5.9 percent.
Dragon Boat Festival commemorates Qu Yuan, a poet of the Chu State during the Warring States Period (475-221 BC).
Places that maintain a well-preserved tradition of folk and cultural activities such as racing dragon boats and eating zongzi — sticky rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves — were big draws. Foshan, in the southern province of Guangdong, where dragon boat races flourished during the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911), has gone viral online in recent years. The traditional boat races saw flight bookings to the city soar 138 percent and hotel bookings rise 51 percent, year-on-year, according to travel portal Trip.com Group. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
