Holiday spending mirrors China's economic vitality

China's tourism and consumption have been firing on all cylinders during the just-ended May Day holiday, showing the country's extraordinary economic resilience.To get morechina economy news today, you can visit shine news official website.

From the latest tourist hotspot Zibo, a low-profile industrial city in east China's Shandong Province now famous for its iconic barbecues, to a camel-riding traffic jam at a desert spot in the northwestern Chinese city of Dunhuang, resorts across the country were swamped with millions of Chinese tourists during the five-day holiday.

China's tourism and consumer activities "rose sharply on the first day of the five-day Labour Day holiday" as residents "rushed to travel and spend" after the country optimized its COVID-19 response measures, Bloomberg reported.Eye-catching data related to the holiday has reflected the strong vitality and resilience of the world's second-largest economy.

The Chinese people made 274 million domestic trips during the five-day break that began on April 29, soaring 70.83 percent from the same holiday a year earlier, and 19.09 percent more than the holiday in 2019 before the COVID-19 outbreak, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism said.

Tourism revenue reached about 21.44 billion U.S. dollars, surging 128.9 percent from last year, according to the ministry.

The booming tourism has effectively driven growth in transportation and catering, as well as accommodation and retail trade.

From April 27 to May 4, 133 million railway passenger trips were made nationwide, 27.94 million more than during the May Day holiday travel rush in 2019, data from China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. showed.The number of daily passenger trips served by China's railways reached 19.66 million on April 29, a new record high for single-day passenger traffic.

Sales of key retail and catering enterprises increased 18.9 percent from the May Day holiday in 2022, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

CBS News reported that "China's tourism industry has not missed the chance to cash in," which serves as a boost for the country's economic recovery.China's retail sales of consumer goods rose 5.8 percent year on year to 11.49 trillion yuan (1.67 trillion dollars) in the first quarter, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

"Consumption growth has picked up significantly in the first quarter as COVID-triggered restrictions on consumption gradually waned and pro-consumption policies paid off," said NBS spokesperson Fu Linghui.

He added that consumption is playing an increasingly prominent role in driving economic development, contributing to 66.6 percent of China's growth in the first quarter, which is a remarkable improvement from last year.

"Consumption has led China's economic growth so far this year," U.S. news website Axios reported, adding that "record-breaking travel and consumption during the May Day holiday could offer a needed economic boost."

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