The weather was nice and residents went out to enjoy landscape tours and folk customs this past New Year’s Day. Statistics from the provincial holiday office show that on New Year's Day, the province received a total of 3.49 million tourists, an increase of 2.99 percent (calculated on a comparable basis) over last year, and a total income of 1.18 billion yuan ($195 million), an increase of 28.89 percent.

With the impact of vacation time reduced, the number of tourists in medium and remote range got an obvious decrease, but in short range won a substantial increase. During the New Year period, high-speed traffic across the country increased with an average of more than 10% than usual, and traffic in Hefei, Wuhu and Chizhou City, grew more than 15%.

Around major cities, there are key tourist attractions, country tourist attractions and rural farmhouse, which received two times of self-driving tourists more than usual. In the aspect of urban travel, major parks and cultural squares organized cultural tourism activities, attracting a large number of people.

Among the parks, Bengbu Zhanggongshan Park, Wuhu Zheshan Park and Huaibei Xiangshan Park received more than 10,000 tourists, an increase of more than 20% than last year. As to ecological tour aspect, despite of the cold winter, the majority of tourists’ pursuit of fresh and natural eco-tourism product becomed even exceptionally strong.

With regard to ecological scenic spot, one of spots monitored by Provincial Holiday Office, the reception of tourists rose by more than the average level, in which Chizhou ecological scenic spot increased about 20%, and Dabie Mountain ecological scenic spot increased more than 15%. 

During the holidays, no tourism safety accidents and major tourist complaints happened in the whole province.

Edited by Michael Thai, Huang Pei