Tourism grows during China\'s National Day holiday

Tourism revenue in China reached 145.8 billion yuan (22.94 billion U.S. dollars) during the week-long National Day holiday, an increase of 25.1 percent year-on-year, official data showed Saturday. Scenic spots around China received a total of 302 million tourists during the holiday, up 18.8 percent from the same period last year, the National Tourism Administration (NTA) and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement. The data showed each tourist spent an average of 483 yuan during the holiday, compared with 459 yuan last year. Of the total tourism revenue, 58.1 billion yuan came from tourist spending in 39 major tourism cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guilin and Haikou, with 78.4 billion yuan from other cities or scenic spots.