Residents in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang Province, buy flowers and green plants on February 8, 2024. Demands for flowers as well other decorations that add to the festive mood, have jumped in recent days, ahead of the Spring Festival holidays which fall on Saturday. Photo: VCG

As half of China's eight-day Spring Festival holidays has passed, the record-setting domestic trips of the travel peak this year are facilitating consumption across the country. 

China Railway's daily monitoring data showed that nationwide railway network is estimated to facilitate 12.85 million passenger times on Tuesday, the 19th day of the Spring Festival travel peak. One day earlier, the volume hit 11.24 million as the railway sector kept running at a high level.

The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge on Monday facilitated over 130,000 daily cross-boundary passenger times, surpassing the previous daily record of 115,000 passenger trips since the bridge entered operation, which was made during the "Super Golden Week" of 2023 Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays, China Media Group (CMG) reported on Tuesday.

The Xishuangbanna Railway Station in Southwest China's Yunnan Province, a station along the Belt and Road Initiative flagship project China-Laos Railway, facilitated 52,200 cross-border passenger trips on Monday, the highest record since the station was put into service in 2021.

During the 40-day travel peak of the 2024 Spring Festival started which on January 26, it has been estimated that a total of 9 billion passenger trips will be made. The vast human flow injected vitality to consumption and national economy.

A resident surnamed Yu from Hohhot, North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, told the Global Times on Tuesday that she flied to Haikou in South China's Hainan Province on Saturday, and she observed throngs of people in airports, shopping malls and restaurants.

"Travel during the Spring Festival holidays is a tradition for our family that had been put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the 2024 Spring Festival has completely stepped out of the pandemic's shadow, we planned a long journey to Hainan to enjoy the warm climate here," said Yu.

Major tourist sites across China have welcomed 123 million tourist trips since the beginning of the 2024 Spring Festival travel rush, marking an increase of 22.8 percent year-on-year, CMG reported on Tuesday.

Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, Wuhan in Central China's Hubei Province and Xi'an in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province have emerged as the top 3 hottest travel destinations, and followed by Beijing and Kaifeng in Central China's Henan Province.

Notably, the number of cross-province tourists accounted for 28.5 percent of total tourists volume this year, five percentage points more from the level of the same period in 2023, said the report.

In the film market, the total box office during the Spring Festival film season starting from February 10 to 17 has crossed the 4.5-billion-yuan ($625.79 million) benchmark on Tuesday, including presales, according to film tracking site Dengta.

Behind the bustling consumption lies a robust support from governments at all levels, through measures such as issuance of consumer vouchers, discount promotions and the organization of shopping festivals.

China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism said on February 6 that it will issue coupons worth over 600 million yuan, which can be used in sectors such as entertainment, catering and accommodation during the Spring Festival holidays.

China's film bureau and the country's monetary authorities have announced plans to hand out movie coupons worth 30 million yuan in digital currency to boost consumption during the Spring Festival holidays.

Beijing, Shanghai, Southwest China's Sichuan and Central China's Hunan Province also announced the issue of coupons and vouchers to boost film consumption, Securities Times reported.

Robust consumption in various sectors during the holidays will generate a positive cycle in national economy, and lay foundation for the steady functioning of the economy after the holidays, Hu Qimu, deputy secretary-general of the digital-real economies integration Forum 50, told the Global Times on Thursday.

"The general consumption performance reflected the recovery of market confidence to some extent. With the country's consumption structure keeping upgraded, people will feel the economic growth more easily," Hu noted.