Tourism records new highs during holiday

Tourist attractions in China were packed with visitors during the weeklong National Day holiday, while affordable international flights and accommodations ensured that overseas destinations also benefited from the strong spending power of Chinese travelers.

The latest figures from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism show that domestic attractions received 765 million visits during the holiday, also known as Golden Week, which started on Oct 1. That was up 5.9 percent year-on-year and an increase of 10.2 percent compared with the same period in 2019, before the COVID-19 outbreak.

Tourism-related revenue reached a record high of over 700.8 billion yuan ($99.4 billion) during the break, up 6.3 percent year-on-year and an increase of 7.9 percent compared with the same period in 2019.

Ye Wen, a resident of Jiangxi province who visited Beijing with her family, said the Chinese capital was a crowd magnet during the holiday. "We were packed like sardines. I felt my feet didn't touch the ground as I pushed my way through the crowd," she said.

However, Ye emphasized that their trip was meaningful because this year's National Day marked the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

"I took my grandparents to Tian'anmen Square, the Palace Museum and the Summer Palace. It was a pity, though, that we didn't have the opportunity to watch the flag-raising ceremony at Tian'anmen," she added.

According to official statistics, about 123,000 people including tourists and local residents watched the flag-raising ceremony at Tian'anmen Square on Oct 1.

While Beijing and Shanghai remained the top domestic travel choices during Golden Week, the craze over Black Myth: Wukong — a video game based on the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West — turned lesser-known cities and counties into holiday destinations.

For example, Xixian county in Shanxi province reaped big benefits, because several scenes in the video game are based on one of its tourist spots, Xiaoxi-tian, or Thousand Buddha Nunnery, which boasts stunning Buddhist architecture and cultural elements.

The unexpected and huge influx of tourists prompted local authorities to limit the number of visitors to Xiaoxitian to 10,000 per day starting on Thursday.

Data from travel portal Fliggy shows that in addition to the robust growth in domestic tourism, international travel also increased during the weeklong break, thanks to a drop in airfares and hotel room rates.

During the holiday, bookings for overseas tour products jumped 50 percent year-on-year on the platform, while hotel bookings saw 20 percent growth compared with the same period in 2019, Fliggy said.

Domestic airfares and hotel rates dropped 13 percent and 6 percent, respectively, compared with last year, while international flights and hotel rooms were respectively cheaper by 19 percent and 3 percent, according to the portal.

"All trips were value for the money," Fliggy said.

Tourism data recorded by another travel agency, Qunar, was equally encouraging. Overseas flight and hotel bookings by users on the platform covered 1,597 cities in 144 countries and regions during the holiday.

Short-haul Asian destinations with friendly visa policies, including Japan, Thailand and South Korea, remained top choices for Chinese travelers, according to Qunar.

Travelers from first-tier Chinese cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, preferred long-haul flights to holiday destinations in Europe and the United States, it added.

Zhu Xingxin in Taiyuan contributed to this story.