BEIJING: During China’s Spring Festival holiday, fresh momentum has been injected into the consumption drive of the world’s second-largest economy, as highlighted by various data.
China saw around 13.52 million inbound and outbound trips during the holiday period from February 10 to 17, an average of 1.69 million per day, an increase of 2.8 times over the same period last year, according to the National Immigration Administration. Domestic transportation ushered in a high, with national railways recording 99.46 million passengers trips and civil aviation close to 18 million.
The tourism boom during the holidays highlighted the great travel demand, with many indicators reaching new highs. 474 million domestic passenger trips were made during the holiday, up 34.3 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Its corresponding tourism revenue came up to 632.69 billion yuan ($87.95 billion), a year-on-year increase of 47.3 percent.
A total of 16,300 commercial performances were on show nationwide during the holiday, up 52.1 percent year-on-year, reaching 778 million yuan in revenue, an increase of 80.1 percent.
China’s box office revenue during the eight-day holiday exceeded 8 billion yuan, hitting a new record for the holiday period, according to preliminary statistics from the National Film Administration. Recorded payment transactions further evidenced the consumption boom. From February 9 to 14, 15.38 billion online payments were processed in China, totaling 7.74 trillion yuan, representing increases of 15.8 percent and 10.1 percent, respectively, data from the People Bank of China showed. Earlier, Chinese railways reported 99.46 million passenger trips during the just-concluded Spring Festival holiday that ran from Feb 10 to 17 this year, latest data showed. On Saturday, the last day of the eight-day holiday, nearly 16.07 million trips were recorded, according to data from the China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. (China Railway), the national railway operator. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
