China’s travel spending during Lunar New Year holidays beats…

BEIJING, Feb 18 (Reuters) – Tourism revenues in China during the eight-day Lunar New Year holidays that ended on Saturday surged by 47.3% year-on-year thanks to a domestic travel boom, surpassing pre-COVID 2019 levels, official data showed on Sunday. The data may offer temporary relief to policymakers as the world’s second-largest economy has been facing deflationary risks amid weak consumer demand, but the sustainability of the tourism boost remains uncertain. During the holiday, known as the world’s largest annual migration, tourist attractions across the country witnessed massive crowds. Domestic tourism spending jumped by 47.3% to 632.7 billion yuan ($87.96 billion) from the same holiday period in 2023, and were up 7.7% from pre-COVID levels in 2019, according to the data…