Mao Ning profile photo Photo: official website of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs

China will continue to promote cross-border travel as a way to boost high-quality opening up, and create a better condition for the global community to share China's growth opportunity, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Monday, commenting on a surge of overseas trips made by Chinese tourists during the Spring Festival holidays.

"As the number of countries offering visa-free policies to Chinese tourists continues to expand, outbound travel has become more popular. Chinese and foreign tourists flocked to each other's countries during the Spring Festival holidays, making the holiday a peak period for global tourism," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a routine press conference on Monday.

As such, the Spring Festival of the Year of the Dragon has allowed the world to see the vitality of the Chinese economy, which will help boost market expectation and confidence for the whole year, Mao said.

The optimism is echoed in the World Tourism Barometer, published by the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) in January, which said "Outbound and inbound tourism from China is expected to proliferate in 2024 due to visa facilitation and increased airline capacity."

China's tourism sector recorded 474 million domestic tourist trips during the 2024 Spring Festival holidays, with total travel spending reaching 632.687 billion yuan ($88.89 billion), up 7.7 percent compared with the same period in 2019 prior to the pandemic, data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism showed.

A total of 3.6 million overseas trips were made while inbound trips reached 3.23 million, according to the ministry.

For the Chinese movie market, the box office for the 2024 Spring Festival holidays surpassed a historic high of 8 billion yuan.

The booming outbound travel also allowed the world to share the Spring Festival consumption dividends and experience the joyful and peaceful Chinese New Year, Mao said.

Chinese visitors traveled to more than 1,700 cities in 125 countries and regions, ranging as far as Madagascar and Cuba, according to Beijing-based online travel agency Qunar.com.