Outbound travel from China during the Spring Festival holidays from February 18 to 24 leapt 10% year on year totaling 5.182 million trips (excluding visitors to Hong Kong and Macau), according to the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA).
Short-haul destinations like Thailand, Japan, Korea and South East Asia remained the top destinations for group tours and long-haul destinations like Australia and the USA also had a jump in visitor numbers during the Spring Festival.
International destinations took measures to accommodate the influx of Chinese visitors during the “Spring Festival travel season”. Spain prepared a host of “Chinese-friendly”hotels offering adjusted menus, Chinese TV broadcast and Chinese-language service, while some hotels in the USA launched Spring Festival festivities and trained staff on Chinese consumer habits.
This year’s Spring Festival also saw a peak in demand from travelers who combined VFR (visit friends and relatives) with leisure travel.
Shanghai received 4.8% more visitors than same time last year, recording 3.8027 million arrivals, and tourism revenue also rose 4.9% to RMB3.749 billion (approx: US$598.8 million). Jiangsu Province recorded 2.9808 million visits to its 12 nationally designated scenic spots, up 16% y-o-y, with total revenue of RMB96.225 million (approx: US$15.37 million), up 7.5% y-o-y.
The service quality of the domestic tourism industry has also dramatically improved as the number of claims fell and safety levels remained stable with no major safety incidents reported during the holiday. In the period between February 17 to 24， CNTA received 93 cases of complaints, down 50.3% y-o-y. (Translation by David)
