(Yicai Global) Feb. 22 -- The number of Chinese journeying to destinations in their own country reached 386 million during this year's Spring Festival holiday, an increase of 12.1 percent annually as more and more people chose to spend their time-off traveling, the national tourism agency said.

Chinese provinces that received the most tourists during the holiday were Guangdong, Sichuan, Hunan, Jiangsu, Henan, Anhui, Shandong, Guangxi, Hubei, and Zhejiang, data from the National Tourism Administration states.

China's domestic tourism sector is undergoing changes related to consumer habits, said Wang Xinjun, chairman at Ivy Alliance Tourism Consulting. "There are three phases in tourism development: the first phase is sight-seeing, purely visiting sights without staying too long; the second phase is vacationing, either in hotels or resorts, mainly for leisure; and the third phase is experiencing such as skiing; we are now gradually entering the third phase," he said.

Overseas tourism was also popular with Chinese people over the holiday with Thailand, USA, France, Vietnam, Singapore, Australia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia among the biggest hotspots, NTA data shows. Tourists from China's 200 main Chinese cities traveled to more than 730 domestic and overseas cities covering around 70 countries and regions worlwide, the agency said, adding that Southeast Asia was still the top destination for overseas trips.

Nearly 400,000 Chinese tourists went to Thailand during the Spring Festival holiday bringing revenue of almost THB20 billion (about CNY4 billion), Vichit Prakobgosol, chairman of Thai-Chinese Tourism Alliance Association estimated.