China's 2025 New Year holiday sees boost in spending and travel activity

The New Year holiday demonstrated a vibrant start to 2025 for China's economy, with notable growth in tourism, consumer spending, and transportation.

Cross-border trips surged by 13.7 percent year on year, reaching over 1.8 million passenger trips during the New Year holiday on Wednesday, according to the National Immigration Administration (NIA). Of these trips, 869,000 were made by Chinese mainland residents, up 11.1 percent year on year, and 185,000 by foreigners, up 33.6 percent, data from the NIA showed on Thursday.

Outbound tourism has continued its high growth trend since 2023. According to Fliggy data, as of the early morning of January 1, 2025, outbound tourism bookings increased by nearly 70 percent year on year. With the relaxation of China's visa free policy, from December 31, 2024 to January 1, 2025, overall inbound tourism bookings grew exponentially, with orders from neighboring countries such as South Korea and Japan increasing by 215 percent and 145 percent respectively on the Ctrip platform, reported The Paper.

Meanwhile, China's New Year's Day box office surpassed 3 billion yuan ($411 million), according to box office data tracker Dengta. Leading titles included "Sheep Without a Shepherd 3," "Big World," and "Honey Money Phony."

(With input from Xinhua; cover via CFP)