Twice as many Chinese travel during New Year holiday: report

BEIJING, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- The number of Chinese people making trips during the New Year holiday doubled from the same period a year ago, an industry report said Tuesday.

A report from Lvmama Tourism, a popular online travel agency in China, showed that during the three-day break from Dec. 31 to Jan. 2, 2017, the number of Chinese people who traveled overseas was 2.47 times the number recorded during the New Year holiday a year earlier.

Thailand, the Philippines, South Korea and Japan were among the favorite destinations, the report said.

The New Year travel rush saw an estimated 120 million trips inside China, the National Tourism Administration said.

The country's tourism sector pocketed 67.9 billion yuan (about 9.8 billion U.S. dollars) during the three-day break, according to the agency.

About 112 million trips were short-distance, due to limited time, the agency said, adding that rural and suburban trips were most popular.

A total of 26.73 million passenger trips were made on trains, and a further 2.6 million on flights, data from transportation authorities showed.