Extended holiday bolsters tourism

The May Day holiday boosted tourism figures this year as tens of millions of younger travelers in particular raced to visit popular destinations, official data showed.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism said China saw 195 million tourists during the four-day holiday that ended on Saturday, a year-on-year increase of 13.7 percent. The surge of travelers pushed tourism revenue to almost 118 billion yuan ($17.5 billion) nationwide, a 16.1 percent increase over last year, it said.

The one-day national holiday that falls on May 1 was extended to four days from May 1 to May 4 this year. People worked on April 28 and May 5 to make up for the holidays on May 2 and 3.