SHENZHEN/SINGAPORE: Record passenger trips and an uptick in domestic tourism spending - China’s annual “Golden Week” holiday rush returned with a vengeance this year.

Figures from China’s Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Culture and Tourism revealed new holiday highs, with 888 million domestic tourist trips and 809 billion yuan (US$113.5 billion) in domestic tourism spending recorded nationwide between Oct 1 and 8 - both up more than 15 per cent year on year.

During the eight-day holiday, cross-regional passenger trips hit 2.43 billion - a record high, state news agency Xinhua reported.

Dubbed “Super Golden Week”, this year’s holiday combined two major holidays - national day and the Mid-Autumn festival - extending the break to eight days instead of the usual seven.

And it wasn’t just Chinese holidaymakers making their mark.

Inbound tourism witnessed significant growth, with large numbers of travellers from countries like South Korea, Japan, Russia, Australia, Malaysia and also the United States - “fuelled by visa facilitation policies and a rich array of cultural and tourism activities”, according to Chinese state media reports.

This year’s “Super Golden Week” holiday also overlapped with other long holidays in the region like Japan’s Silver Week, which lasted from Sep 13 to 23, and the Chuseok holiday in South Korea, which ran from Oct 3 to 9.

Industry experts told CNA that this rare alignment created a perfect travel window for tourists visiting China - with many Japanese and South Korean travellers visiting during their breaks. Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong were popular destinations, said Ctrip, China’s largest online travel agency.