(Yicai) Oct. 9 -- China's tourism income jumped during the recent Golden Week holiday as hordes of tourists set out on domestic trips, exceeding pre-pandemic levels, but it takes more time for outbound tourism to catch up.

The number of domestic trips surged by 71 percent to 826 million from a year ago or a 4 percent uptick from the corresponding period in 2019, a time before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to data from the culture and tourism ministry. Tourism income more than doubled to CNY753.4 billion (USD103.3 billion) year-over-year or a nearly 2 percent increase from the pre-Covid period four years ago.

So many people decided to travel during the holiday so that proves tourism remains in high demand and a leading industry driving the development of the service sector, Chen Qiankang, professor at Sichuan Normal University's School of History Culture and Tourism, said to Yicai.

Domestic tourism should be in full recovery now, while inbound and outbound tourism rebound slower, per Chen, who is also the head of the provincial association of tour guides. The tourism industry still has space to grow alongside the real economy, Chen added.

Six provinces, including Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Sichuan, and Liaoning, each welcomed over 50 million tourists over the eight-day period, hosting as many as 406 million in total, or nearly half of the nationwide figure. Among them, Henan was the hottest destination as 84.8 million tourists visited the central province between Sept. 29 and Oct. 6, according to the local department of culture and tourism.

Besides Henan, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Anhui, Zhejiang, and Yunnan each earned over CNY40 billion (USD5.5 billion) in tourism income while the total of the six provinces tallied CNY350.5 billion, making up almost 50 percent of the domestic total. Eastern China's Jiangsu earned the most as its tourism income almost tripled to CNY90.8 billion from a year ago or a nearly 26 percent gain from the seven-day holiday period in October 2019.

Editors: Shi Yi, Emmi Laine