(Yicai) Feb. 11 -- Chinese authorities are rolling out a raft of measures to boost holiday travel and spending during the upcoming nine-day Lunar New Year break, including a lottery linked to official invoices, known as fapiao, with total prize money of more than CNY1 billion (USD145 million).

Consumers in 50 pilot cities will be able to enter prize draws after making purchases, dining out, traveling or staying at hotels during the Spring Festival Holiday, which runs from Feb. 15 to Feb. 23 this year, as long as they obtain invoices worth at least CNY100 (USD14.50), Vice Minister of Commerce Sheng Qiuping said at a press briefing today. Prizes are capped at CNY800 (USD115) per invoice.

The lottery prizes handed out during the Spring Festival account for around 10 percent of a CNY10 billion (USD1.4 billion) prize pool announced by the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce, and the State Taxation Administration in January which will run for a six-month trial period.

China will also ramp up its consumer goods trade-in subsidy program during the holiday. Now in its third year, the scheme encourages households to replace old appliances and consumer goods with new ones. Sheng said the first batch of national subsidy funds for this year, worth CNY62.5 billion (USD9 billion), has already been allocated to local commerce departments to ensure consumers can smoothly claim the subsidies.

In addition to trade-in subsidies, local governments across China will offer more than CNY360 million (USD52.1 million) in consumption subsidies in the form of spending vouchers, ticket discounts and promotional campaigns, Fu Hanxiao, deputy director of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s industry development department, said at the press conference.

In recent months, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism has held Spring Festival-themed tourism promotion events in more than 100 countries and regions to attract overseas visitors to China, Fu said. During the holiday itself, around 30,000 cultural and tourism events are expected to take place nationwide.

Meanwhile, the People’s Bank of China and the National Financial Regulatory Administration will guide financial and payment institutions to work with merchants on a range of promotional offers covering flights, hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions during the Spring Festival break, Sheng said.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Kim Taylor