During the past National Day holiday, from Oct 1 to Oct 7, the tourist volume to tourism destinations in North China’s Shanxi province amounted to 28.69 million, a growth of 16.29 percent compared with the last National Day holiday, when comprehensive tourism revenue grew 15.33 percent to 18.38 billion yuan ($2.99 billion) at this seven-day holiday.

More than half of the tourists to Shanxi, roughly 17.69 million, during this National Day holiday were one-day tourists. The others preferred to stay overnight.

The 36 key scenic areas in Shanxi received 5.94 million visitors in total and saw ticket revenue of over 185 million yuan. The Old Town of Pingyao together with four other scenic areas, including Mount Mianshan, the House of Chancellor in Huangcheng, Yuci Ancient City and the Grand Courtyard of the Wang Family, made the list of most popular tourist destinations.

Statistics showed that traditional sight-seeing spots and historical relics saw fewer tourists during this holiday, while some new scenic spots enjoyed evident growth.

A total of 728 calls were made to Shanxi’s 12301 tourism services hotline, a 67.7 percent improvement from the same period last year. A total of 46.8 percent of calls were made from tourists outside of Shanxi, such as from Shaanxi, Hebei, Henan and Inner Mongolia.

During the holiday, from 8 am on Oct 1 to 6 pm on Oct 7, the tourism quality supervision units in Shanxi handled 14 complaints, a sharp drop year-on-year.

Edited by Michael Thai