·Three-day holiday ending Saturday logs more than 119 million domestic trips and close to 54 billion yuan in revenue, well over pre-pandemic levels
·Inbound and outbound tourism levels were close to those logged during the 2019 festival, ministry in Beijing says
（Drone photo shows travellers going through automated gateways at a railway station in Hengyang, in central China’s Hunan province on Saturday. ）
Domestic travel and spending in China during last week’s extended Ching Ming Festival rose by more than 10 per cent from pre-pandemic levels, with consumption continuing to be a major driver of economic recovery.
More than 119 million domestic trips were logged during the three-day holiday ending Saturday, marking an increase of 11.5 per cent compared to the same period in 2019, according to the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
Revenue from domestic travel totalled 53.95 billion yuan (about US$7.61 billion), up by 12.7 per cent from the pre-pandemic year, the ministry said in an article posted on its website on Saturday.
China is banking on tourism and consumption to power its post-pandemic economic recovery, as a deepening property sector crisis and weak private sector and foreign investor confidence continue to weigh on overall growth.
Ching Ming or “tomb sweeping” festival is a day for honouring the dead, by sweeping their resting places and burning paper offerings. This year’s festival fell on a Thursday, allowing it to be extended into the weekend, with Sunday declared a working day instead.
Last year’s holiday lasted only a day, having fallen on a Wednesday, and was the first since China began lifting its stringent “zero-Covid” restrictions a few months earlier.
More than 23.7 million domestic tourist trips were made that day – up by nearly a quarter from the previous year – while travel-related revenue grew by 29 per cent to 6.52 billion yuan, according to official figures.