China sees robust travel, tourism demand during New Year’s Day holiday

BEIJING, Jan 2 (Reuters) – Travel in China flourished over the three-day New Year’s holiday, with 135 million domestic tourist trips, up 155% from last year, while domestic tourism revenue rose to 79.73 billion yuan ($11.23 billion), data released Monday showed. During the New Year holidays, more than 128 million passenger trips were made on China’s transport network, up 78.4% from 2023 and 33.1% from 2022, according to Ministry of Transport figures reported by state media. The number of railway passenger trips surged 177.5% year-on-year, and air passenger trips jumped 140.3%, the Global Times reported. Cold weather across large parts of the country did not deter people from flocking to music festivals and concerts, while group outings of families increased,…