China kicks off Year of the Loong with robust Spring Festival holiday statistics

BEIJING -- China embraced the Year of the Loong with vibrant travel and entertainment activities during the recent Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, holiday.

This year's Spring Festival holiday lasted from Feb. 10 to Feb. 17, one day more than the previous years. The eight-day holiday saw more people go on trips, more holiday goods purchases, and more quality family time spent in doing leisure activities.

The following are some of the highlights of the country's holiday data, which mirrored a solid revival of the country's consumption strength in 2024.

BOX OFFICE

China's national box office during the holiday hit a record high of 8.02 billion yuan (about 1.13 billion U.S. dollars), according to the China Film Administration. The number of people watching movies during the same period also set a new record of 163 million.

The figures increased by 18.47 percent and 26.36 percent, respectively, compared with the Spring Festival holiday last year.

TOURISM

China's tourism market boomed during the holiday, with indicators such as the number of tourism trips reaching a new high.

Some 474 million domestic tourism trips were made during the Spring Festival holiday, an increase of 19 percent on a comparable basis compared with the pre-pandemic level in 2019, according to data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

ONLINE TRANSACTIONS

China's online transactions saw a robust increase in both volume and value during the Spring Festival holiday.

Online payment clearing house NetsUnion Clearing Corporation, and card payment giant China UnionPay handled a combined average of 2.63 billion online transactions each day from Feb. 9 to 17, up 18.6 percent from the previous Spring Festival holiday season.

The daily average transaction value involved increased 8 percent from the previous holiday period to hit 1.25 trillion yuan.

RAILWAY TRIPS

China's railway passenger trip data is a leading measure of the country's Spring Festival holiday festivities, which feature the largest population migration in a year.

On Feb. 17, the last day of the eight-day holiday, nearly 16.07 million railway trips were recorded, smashing the single-day passenger trips record in the Spring Festival travel rush period for four days in a row, according to data from the China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. (China Railway), the national railway operator.

During the entire eight-day holiday, Chinese railways reported 99.46 million passenger trips in total.

EXPRESS DELIVERY

As some people joined the travel surge, some opted to send their good wishes through special purchases mailed to their relatives and friends.

During the period, China's express delivery industry delivered about 641 million parcels, with an 82.1 percent increase in average daily delivery volume over the same holiday period last year, according to data released by the State Post Bureau.