Flower-themed spring outings popular during Qingming Festival

Flower-themed trips were popular in China over the recent Qingming Festival, during which the country's tourism sector saw a total of 112 million single trips and made 47.89 billion yuan (about $7.13 billion) in revenue, thepaper.cn reported on April 7.

An important occasion for Chinese people to offer sacrifices to their ancestors, this year’s Qingming Festival, also known as Tomb Sweeping Day, fell on April 5, allowing people across the country to enjoy a three-day holiday.

In China, the number of single trips over the holiday period rose by 10.9 percent year-on-year, while the revenue from these trips rose 13.7 percent. The festival has long been regarded as an opportunity to enjoy the spring scenery with family and friends.

Various flower-themed trips both in and out of the country were common choices this year.

Popular destinations in China like Wuyuan County of Shangrao City in east China’s Jiangxi Province, Wuhan City, capital of central China’s Hubei Province, Luoyang City of central China’s Henan Province, and Kunming City, capital of southwest China’s Yunnan Province, attracted a considerable number of tourists during the festival, said Chinese travel service provider LY.com.

Moreover, short outbound trips to see seasonal flowers were more popular this year, according to LY.com, disclosing that trips to Japanese cities including Nagoya, Tokyo, and Matsuyama to see cherry blossom were most popular.

Short trips to island or beach destinations such as Pattaya, Phuket Island, and Bali were the second most popular options among outbound Chinese tourists, noted LY.com.

According to data released by the China Tourism Academy, various culture-themed trips in the country also witnessed growing popularity, with 54.33 percent, 32.36 percent, 38.24 percent, 37.23 percent, and 42.91 percent of respondents visiting museums, art galleries, libraries, science and technology museums, and historical and cultural blocks respectively.

The data also indicated that historically themed scenic spots saw a growth of 55.2 percent in online ticket sales.

Statistics from Alibaba’s online travel service platform Fliggy revealed that the post-90s generation was the main driving force behind these soaring figures, accounting for 58 percent of the total.

Additionally, the number of tourists born after the year 2000 who traveled during the three-day festival was more than four times the figure last year, according to Fliggy.