(ECNS) — During the Spring Festival of the Year of the Rabbit, China’s domestic demands for tourism and film consumption have recovered, bringing confidence to markets, according to a latest spring festival report published by Alibaba on Thursday.
Many scenic areas in South China saw explosive growth of tourists. According to data from the online travel platform Fliggy, the most popular domestic destinations during the holiday were Chengdu, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.
During the festival, the turnover of vacation products in south China’s Yunnan province increased more than 14 times. The order volume of vacation products in South China’s Hainan increased by 24 percent year-on-year, and the number of ticket reservations in Hong Kong SAR increased by more than 22 times year-on-year.
Data shows that during the Spring Festival, the number of orders for homestays on the Fligyy platform increased by more than 260 percent year-on-year, and the most popular cities were Dali and Lijiang in South China’s Yunnan Province, Xiamen in Southeast China’s Fujian Province, Sanya in South China’s Hainan Province and Beihai in Southwest China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Along with booming tourism, China’s cinemas welcomed crowds of moviegoers during the Spring Festival holiday.
A total of 126 million tickets were sold as of 7 p.m. Friday, harvesting a whopping revenue of 6.65 billion yuan (about $982 million), according to box office tracker Maoyan.
The twist-filled “Full River Red,” Zhang Yimou’s first foray into the “suspense plus comedy” genre, topped the holiday box office chart, raking in 2.55 billion yuan. That accounted for 38 percent of the box office total.
It was followed by Guo Fan’s “The Wandering Earth II,” a prequel to the 2019 sci-fi blockbuster “The Wandering Earth,” which pulled in 2.13 billion yuan.
The high box office and reputation raised hopes for the film industry’s future recovery.
