Almost 400 Xinjiang scenic spots offer free admission during the Spring Festival

Near four hundred A-class scenic spots in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region offer free admission to travelers during the Spring Festival holidays - from February 10 to 24, a move to further embrace the ice and snow tourism boom across China over the upcoming major festival holiday.

As the boom of the ice and snow economy continues into the Spring Festival holiday, the marketing frenzy in Xinjiang and other regions reflects that local economy is benefiting from the robust recovery of consumption in China and local economic governance is improving, experts said.

Xinjiang also introduced a series of high-quality travel routes and key cultural activities during the Spring Festival holidays, China Central TV reported.

During the Spring Festival and Lantern Festival, various prefectures and cities in Xinjiang will host a total of 724 key cultural events showcasing local customs, folk traditions, and cultural heritage. There will be 221 tourism-related activities in total, the report said.

Local scenic areas have quickly moved to capitalize on market trends like the ice and snow boom and continuously launched marketing events to expand related consumption, attracting consumers from across the country and even globally, Tian Yun, a Beijing-based veteran economist told the Global Times on Friday.

"I believe this is a very smart approach and also reflects the development of local economy and improvement of governance capabilities," Tian said.

The surge in ice and snow tourism, which started from the New Year holiday, or even earlier, has already brought benefits of consumption recovery to various parts of China, from Harbin in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province to Sanya in South China's Hainan province.

During the three-day New Year's Day holidays amid this round of ice and snow tourism boom, Xinjiang welcomed more than 1.66 million trips, up 195 percent year-on-year, and generated about 1.76 billion yuan in tourism revenue, up 424.3 percent year-on-year, according to data from local media ts.cn.

In the whole year of 2023, tourism in Xinjiang also achieved rapid growth, with the region reporting more than 265.44 million trips, surging 117.04 percent year-on-year in 2023, ts.cn reported.

As the Chinese Lunar New Year holidays approach, it is expected that the tourism market nationwide will continue to see a relatively big boom, Xu Xiaolei, a marketing manager at China's CYTS Tours Holding Co, told the Global Times on Friday.