CCTV News: Today's Spring Festival travel is no longer just a synonym for returning home for the New Year. During the 40 days of the Spring Festival travel rush, people's travel reasons have become more diverse. According to the Data Center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, there were 501 million domestic travelers nationwide during the Spring Festival holiday alone, an increase of 5.9% year-on-year; the total domestic travel expenses were 677.02 billion yuan, an increase of 7.0% year-on-year. Large-scale personnel flow and consumption capacity highlight the vitality and resilience of my country's consumption.

This Spring Festival travel rush, the new railway line with more than 3,100 kilometers ushered in the "first show of the Spring Festival travel rush". While traveling is more convenient, it also brings new opportunities to the tourism industry. In the west, the railway connects scenic spots. After the Sichuan-Qinghai Railway was opened, passengers took a high-speed train from Chengdu and could reach Jiuzhaigou in as fast as more than three hours; in the Yangtze River Delta, the large ring line connecting the three provinces and one city of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and Anhui has achieved two-way operation, and the number of passengers has increased by 6.3% compared with the same period last year's Spring Festival travel rush.

The Asian Winter Association has inspired the "ice and snow fever". During this year's Spring Festival travel rush, the peak passenger flow of nearly 300,000 people per day was superimposed with the transportation of the Asian Winter Games. The railway department has increased the frequency of trains between popular cities such as Mudanjiang, Jiamusi, and Mohe. The shortest departure interval between Harbin and Yabuli in the Asian Winter Competition Zone is every 7 minutes.

Inner Mongolia snow season lasts for 7 months. During this year's Spring Festival travel rush, Inner Mongolia took advantage of the geographical advantages of Ulanqab City's western connection to Hohhot and Baotou, radiating to more than ten provinces and cities such as Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, as well as the intersection of Jidayuan High-speed Railway and Beijing-Bao Passenger Dedicated Passenger Dedicated, and launched 7 high-quality ice and snow tourism routes. Folk trains, travel photography trains, intangible cultural heritage trains, Northeast flower jackets, birch bark paintings, dough sculptures, embroidery and other intangible cultural heritage products embellish the carriage with a strong snow-capped flavor.

From short-distance "surrounding tour" to long-distance "theme tour", from cultural experience to leisure and vacation, the diverse tourism needs are better met by the connection of the three-dimensional transportation network. In Fujian, the first highway service area cinema opened on the first day of the Lunar New Year.

The rural roads of more than 4.6 million kilometers are like "capillaries" that penetrate deep into the countryside, making remote villages a popular check-in spot for tourism.

The crowd is surging and vitality, and tourism consumption is rising

This year's Spring Festival travel, with the enrichment of aviation networks, more and more cities have built convenient air bridges. The diversified travel of passengers not only drives local catering, accommodation and other consumption, but also allows more foreigners who enjoy visa-free entry to feel the surging vitality of China's economic development.

During this year's Spring Festival travel rush, regional aviation showed strong momentum in driving rural tourism. Data shows that as of February 17, during the 2025 Spring Festival travel rush, the civil aviation passenger throughput of small and medium-sized airports in China exceeded 22.15 million, an increase of about 8% year-on-year; the passenger transport volume of routes in some regions increased by more than 100% year-on-year.

The well-connected routes of Jiamusi Airport have continuously attracted tourists from all over the world to experience local rural tourism projects such as ethnic catering, special accommodation and Korean handmade products.

As the first branch international airport in Xinjiang, Kashgar Laining Airport, a total of 76 passenger routes have been opened, reaching 46 cities in China. Flying directly through Kashgar, you can go to important domestic cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Shenzhen, Jinan, and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

Thanks to the positive impact of visa facilitation, the expansion of visa-free "moments" and the continuous recovery of international routes last year, "tourism to China" has become a new consumption fashion.

Data from the online travel booking platform shows that during this year's Spring Festival travel rush, the number of domestic flights using non-Chinese passports increased by 70% year-on-year. Among them, the number of passengers from 10 ASEAN countries including Malaysia and Thailand accounts for about 20% of non-Chinese passport passengers. The reporter found that among the Chinese cities where foreigners book, in addition to the high number of air ticket bookings in cities with strong historical and cultural heritage such as Beijing, Chengdu, and Shanghai, foreign tourists also have more diverse destinations, with 10 new arrivals compared with last year.