CHINA saw around 13.52 million inbound and outbound trips during the eight-day Spring Festival holiday that ended Saturday, marking a 2.8-fold increase from the same holiday period last year, the National Immigration Administration said yesterday.

Border inspection agencies across China handled a daily average of about 1.69 million inbound and outbound trips during the period, the administration said.

The total entry-exit trips during the holiday returned to 90% of the level in 2019, according to the administration.

For the Chinese people, the eternal theme of the Spring Festival remains family reunion, yet an increasing number of Chinese are choosing to integrate travel into their holiday traditions.

The change was seen this year as the Spring Festival holiday spanned eight days — possibly nine with a flexible one-day paid leave — surpassing the usual one-week holiday in previous years.

According to Chinese travel website Mafengwo, family travel accounted for 45% of all trips during the holiday, reflecting a trend that young people return home for family reunions before embarking on trips with their families, taking advantage of the extended holiday period.

Beijing, Xi’an and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area were among the most popular tourist destinations, said Mafengwo.

Data from multiple online travel platforms showed that on the first day of the eight-day holiday, outbound travel bookings already surpassed the 2019 figure, with Southeast Asian countries, particularly those with visa-free policies for Chinese nationals, emerging as red-hot destinations.

Experts believe that the revved-up Spring Festival tourism consumption heralds an upward momentum in the tourism sector in 2024.

The China Tourism Academy estimated that over 6 billion domestic trips will be made in 2024, and the total number of inbound and outbound travelers is expected to exceed 260 million.(Xinhua)