(Yicai) June 4 -- Domestic tourism in China received a boost over the recent three-day Dragon Boat Festival, with both the number of trips and spending by local travelers climbing by around 5 percent compared to the same period last year.

The number of trips made across the country jumped 5.7 percent from a year ago during the three-day break, which lasted from May 31 to June 2, to 119 million, according to data released by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. And spending was up 5.9 percent to CNY42.7 billion (USD5.9 billion).

Some 657 million people traveled across the country, a 3 percent year-on-year increase, the Ministry of Transport said. The most popular travel spots were the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Chengdu-Chongqing region. Cities such as Guangzhou, Beijing, Chengdu, Shenzhen and Shanghai saw especially strong tourist activity.

Local governments leaned on folk culture to create new experiences for tourists. Dragon boat races in places such as Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region as well as Guangdong and Guizhou provinces drew huge crowds, filling rivers and villages with spectators.

Cultural and tourism-related bookings in those three provincial-level regions were among the fastest-growing in the country over the break, according to on-demand service platform Meituan.

This year’s Dragon Boat Festival coincided with International Children’s Day on June 1, sparking a surge in family travel. Family-friendly bookings jumped nearly 35 percent year on year, Beijing-based Meituan said.

Travelers increasingly prefer all-in-one holiday experiences, such as packages that combine ‘hotels with tourist attractions’ or ‘meals with hands-on activities,’ a Meituan representative said. This directly led to an increase in consumer spending.

Booming demand for inbound and outbound international travel was a significant highlight of this year’s Dragon Boat Festival. Around 2.1 million people are expected to have passed through China’s borders each day, a jump of 12.2 percent from last year’s holiday, according to the National Immigration Administration.

Inbound travel bookings surged nearly 90 percent from a year earlier, according to online travel agency Trip.com. Popular destinations included Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Chengdu.

As for outbound travel, the top five picks were all within a three-hour flight away, namely Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia, according to Shanghai-based Trip.com.

China’s box office also performed well during the holiday. Movie ticket sales surged 20 percent year on year to CNY460 million (USD63 million). Over 11.7 million people went to the cinema during the three-day break, a jump of 22 percent from a year ago, according to Maoyan Professional Edition.

Editor: Kim Taylor