(Yicai Global) June 26 -- China’s revenue from domestic tourism over the Dragon Boat Festival holiday jumped 44.5 percent compared with last year.

Income from tourism hit CNY37.3 billion (USD5.2 billion) between June 22 and 24, recovering to 95 percent of the same period in 2019, before the start of the coronavirus pandemic, according to data the Ministry of Culture and Tourism released yesterday.

Over the three-day break, 106 million domestic trips were made, up 32 percent from a year earlier and reaching 113 percent of the pre-pandemic level, the data showed.

The Dragon Boat Festival is a barometer of the summer tourism market, said Feng Rao, head of the Mafengwo Tourism Research Institute. Given that more than 100 million people traveled during the break, tourism is expected to boom over summer, entering a new recovery phase, Feng noted.

Hotel bookings, scenic spot reservations, and traffic levels all surpassed the same period of 2019 during this year’s Dragon Boat holiday, according to statistics from travel agencies, including Trip.Com, Tongcheng Travel, and Qunar.

Southeast Asia, particularly Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia, remained the most popular outbound destinations, the data showed.

Editor: Futura Costaglione