Tourism boom continues in China's "ice city" Harbin during Spring Festival holiday

HARBIN, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- Harbin, capital city of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, has reported both record visitor numbers and tourism revenue during the eight-day Spring Festival holiday.

The city attracted over 10.09 million visits from Feb. 10 to 17, with a soaring average daily increase of 81.7 percent year on year. Such a booming tourism market helped Harbin rake in a record high 16.42 billion yuan (about 2.3 billion U.S. dollars), up 235.4 percent year on year, said local authorities.

According to Ctrip, a leading travel platform in China, Harbin Ice-Snow World was the top venue choice for visitors to the city during this period.

Harbin Ice-Snow World, built on the northern bank of the Songhua River which flows through the city, is a landmark ice-and-snow theme park carved out of 250,000 cubic meters of ice and snow. It is known for delicate crafting of ice sculptures such as castles and towers, which are illuminated by colorful lighting.

At midnight of Feb. 15, Harbin Ice-Snow World announced the closure of its 25th seasonal operation. During the 61-day operation period this winter, the park received a total of 2.71 million visitors.

During the 2024 Spring Festival holiday, Harbin was among China's top 10 tourist destinations with the highest full room rate of local hotels on internet platform Meituan. The city also registered a year-on-year increase of over 106 percent in terms of its cultural and tourism consumption during the period.

In addition, Harbin's tourism boom this winter has driven the overall growth of the consumer services industry in Heilongjiang. During the eight-day holiday, the province saw the daily consumption scale of its consumer services sector grow by 34 percent year on year, while that of Harbin increased by 42 percent year on year, data released by Meituan showed.

Harbin plans to further integrate its scenic spots, large-scale cultural and tourism activities, museums and other resources and launch its own top 10 high-quality tourism routes, in order to allow visitors to enjoy an immersive experience of its unique charm, said the municipal culture and tourism bureau.