China expects tourism boom for week-long holiday

Speakers: Sam Duckett and Lu Sirui

Tourism boom during Chinese national holidays [Photo: from Baidu.com]

China is expecting a tourism boom for the upcoming National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holidays, projecting double-digit growth in tourism revenue.

From Oct. 1 to 8, around 710 million trips will be made, with national tourism revenue reaching 590 billion yuan (about US$90 billion), up 10 percent and 12.2 percent respectively on the same period last year, according to predictions by the China National Tourism Administration.

Popular destinations in China include Sanya in the southern province of Hainan, Beijing, Kunming and Lanzhou, according to a survey by Ctrip, China's leading online travel agency.

Of those surveyed, 16.4 percent chose to spend their holidays overseas.

National Day is on Oct. 1 and is celebrated with a week-long holiday. Mid-Autumn Festival falls on Oct. 4 this year.

China's domestic tourism industry earned about 3.9 trillion yuan in 2016, and the country plans to raise tourism revenue to 7 trillion yuan by 2020.

The audio clip is from Studio+, produced by CRI.