BEIJING - Trips for tourism in China during last week’s three-day Dragon Boat Festival climbed 32.3 per cent from a year earlier to an estimated 106 million, 12.8 per cent above the pre-Covid-19 pandemic level in 2019, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism said.

China’s tourism numbers are closely watched as a barometer of consumer demand in the world’s second-biggest economy, as Beijing is expected to pledge further measures to boost growth amid signs that recovery after the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions is faltering.

In contrast to the tourism data released late on Saturday, overall travel during the holiday from Thursday through Saturday spiked 89.1 per cent from a year earlier but remained down 22.8 per cent from 2019, according to Transport Ministry figures published in state media on Saturday.

The Tourism Ministry said revenue from domestic tourism trips during the Dragon Boat Festival rose 44.5 per cent year on year to 37.31 billion yuan (S$7.03 billion), recovering to 94.9 per cent of the 2019 level.

The comparison between the 2023 and 2019 figures was made “according to comparable standards”, the Tourism Ministry said on its website, without providing details about the metrics.

The Dragon Boat Festival tourism rebound is smaller than that during the five-day May Day holiday, when domestic tourism trips surged 70.8 per cent year on year and were 19.1 per cent above those of 2019, with revenues up 128.9 per cent year on year and on a par with 2019, according to Tourism Ministry data in May.

China’s largest online travel agency, Ctrip, said in a report on Saturday that orders for tickets at domestic tourism sites during last week’s holiday doubled from 2019’s level.

Data from the National Immigration Administration (NIA) showed on Sunday that trips across mainland China’s borders averaged 1.32 million a day during the holiday, more than double 2022’s level but just 64.6 per cent of the 2019 level.

The NIA said that of the total 3.96 million cross-border trips, 1.97 million were made by mainland Chinese travellers, 1.67 million by residents in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau, and 323,000 by people from elsewhere. REUTERS