China sees 5.4% rise in domestic tourism with 3.46b trips in H1

China recorded a total of 3.463 billion domestic tourist trips in the first half of 2026, up 5.4 percent year-on-year, according to a sample survey on domestic tourism released by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism on Friday.

The number represented an increase of 178 million trips compared with the same period last year, the survey showed.

Urban residents accounted for 2.594 billion trips, a year-on-year increase of 5.8 percent, while rural residents made 869 million trips, up 4.3 percent.

In the first quarter of the year, domestic tourist trips reached 1.901 billion, up 6.0 percent year-on-year, followed by 1.562 billion trips in the second quarter, an increase of 4.8 percent year-on-year.

Total spending by domestic tourists in the first half of 2026 reached 3.21 trillion yuan ($475.7 billion), up 2.0 percent from a year earlier, adding 60 billion yuan.

Urban residents spent 2.66 trillion yuan on domestic trips, up 2.2 percent year-on-year, while rural residents spent 0.56 trillion yuan, up 0.6 percent.