China's eight-day National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival holiday which starts on Wednesday will fuel a major surge in tourism consumption across the country, according to a big data platform.
By combining paid leave, some travelers opted to take a strategy to extend their "dual festival" holiday. They took three days of annual leave before the official holiday, creating a 12-day break that started on September 27.
The number of travelers from Sept 27 to 30 saw an average daily increase of 9 percent compared to the previous week, according to China Mobile's Wutong Big Data Platform.
The extended holiday has encouraged more long-distance travel. Data shows that 18 percent of travelers chose destinations over 500 kilometers away, a 5 percentage points increase from the same period last year.
"Through our analysis of big data in communication services, we found that the number of travelers began climbing on Sept 27 and reached its peak on Oct 1. The number of travelers is projected to see a daily average increase of 3.5 percent year on year," said Yongqing Lhamo, assistant general manager of China Mobile's Digital Intelligence Department.
Domestic travel data indicates surge in cultural, tourism consumption during holiday
