Tourism boom tipped for May Day break

Travel agencies and tourism experts said they are bullish about the tourism market's performance during the upcoming May Day holiday, with both domestic and outbound tourism visits projected to boom during the period.

Their confidence is supported by strong tourism consumption figures logged in the first quarter. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism said the number of domestic tourist visits reached some 1.8 billion in the first three months, an increase of 26.4 percent year-on-year, leading to tourism-related consumption of about 1.8 trillion yuan ($250 billion), surging 18.6 percent on a yearly basis.

A five-day vacation starting next Thursday, the May Day holiday is the last long holiday in China in the first half of the year. Based on tourism bookings to date for the break, many travel agencies expect domestic tourism market performance to outperform that of each of the previous two years.