Tourism booms in three-day Tomb Sweeping holiday

The just-finished three-day Tomb Sweeping Day holiday, which started on Thursday, saw a tourism boom both in traveler numbers and tourism-related revenues.

According to the latest release by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism on Saturday evening, domestic destinations nationwide received about 119 million visits during the holiday, up 11.5 percent from that in 2019 — the time before the epidemic hit. The holiday only had one day off last year and saw around 23.77 million domestic travels. 

The travel boom this year, generated a tourism-related consumption of about 54 billion yuan ($7.47 billion) over the holiday, with the number marking a rise of 12.7 percent compared with that in 2019, the ministry said.

Spring outings, both to domestic attractions and overseas destinations, saw a remarkable increase during the holiday. Figures from the ministry show that the Chinese mainland saw 1.04 million inbound trips and 992,000 heading to overseas destinations. 

Some less-known tourism places, such as Zibo in the eastern province of Shandong, famous for its barbecue, and Kaifeng in China's central Henan province, have become viral destinations over the holiday because of their delicious cuisines, cultural charms and entertaining events, said the ministry.