China braces for booming holiday trips

Travelers crowd the waiting room at Beijing West Railway Station on Wednesday, the beginning of the 40-day Spring Festival rush. [Photo by Zou Hong/China Daily]

Trips to Chinese scenic spots are likely to surge during the seven-day Lunar New Year holiday, a research institution said.

Chinese tourists would make a total of 250 million trips and the combined tourism revenues would increase 13 percent year on year to 140 billion yuan (22.84 billion U.S. dollars) during the holiday period, data from the China Tourism Academy (CTA) showed.

The tourism authorities said on Wednesday that traditional sites including Beijing, Sanya, Xiamen and Lijiang cities would remain tourists' favorites this time.

Domestic tourism would grow steadily in 2015, while the number of travelers to overseas tourist attractions would grow more rapidly, according to a research note of the CTA.

Countries including Thailand, the Republic of Korea, Japan and the United States would become popular destinations for Chinese tourists.