China achieved a strong rise in tourism revenues over the recent Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, holidays. According to data from the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA), released on Friday and published by Xinhua, nationwide tourism receipts increased 16.4% year-on-year to CNY126.4 billion (US$20.7bn) during the official week-long holiday period, which began on 31 January 2014. The number of Spring Festival tourist trips reached 231 million, up 14% from the corresponding period last year, the CNTA added. Outbound group travel numbers reached 4.7m, up 18.1% compared to last's year's Spring Festival. But the CNTA said it believed that a similar number of people travelled overseas independently, putting the total outbound figure at approximately nine million. The Spring Festival is the world's biggest annual human migration, with more than 3.6bn trips expected to be taken during 40-day peak travel period between 16 January and 24 February 2014.

Source from <Travel Daily Asia>