Holiday travel and spending during the just concluded Chinese Lunar New Year recess hit record highs, surpassing pre-pandemic levels seen in 2019, official data revealed on Sunday. 

China's tourism sector saw 474 million domestic tourist trips during the 2024 Chinese Lunar New Year holidays, up 34.3 per cent year-on-year, while tourism-related spending reached 632.687 billion yuan ($88.89 billion), rising 47.3 per cent year-on-year, said the Ministry of Culture and Tourism (MCT) on Sunday, noting that both figures set new record highs. 

The figures also surpassed 2019 levels, as the number of tourists increasing by 19 per cent and tourism-related spending increasing by 7.7 per cent, reflecting the strong momentum of country's consumption and economic recovery at the beginning of 2024.

The number of cross-border trips reached 6.83 million, including 3.6 million outbound trips and 3.23 million inbound tourist trips, according to the MCT.

A total of 9 billion passenger trips were estimated to have been made during the 40-day travel peak of the 2024 Spring Festival, or "chunyun," which began on January 26. The sector is set to see the biggest travel peak in history, which will help revive consumer spending and the overall economy.

Multiple travel hubs, including Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and the Xishuangbanna Railway Station in Southwest China's Yunnan Province, a Chinese railway station along the Belt and Road Initiative flagship project, China-Laos Railway, all reported new records of daily passenger volumes during the holidays. 

Experts said that robust consumption seen during the holidays will generate a positive impact to accelerate domestic economic growth.