This year's Spring Festival is the first in three years not to encourage Chinese people to stay put during the festival to prevent large-scale outbreaks.

In response, local governments and industries are rolling out festive activities, lively bazaars, and shopping coupons, in all-out efforts to buoy the long-awaited recovery from the COVID-19 doldrums. Tourists, either bathing in the sunshine on the coastline or braving the winter cold in ski resorts, have been inundated with a whirlwind of customized activities.

Data from the country's Ministry of Culture and Tourism shows about 308 million domestic trips were made in China during this year's Spring Festival holiday, up 23.1 percent year on year.

Domestic tourism revenue generated during the week-long holiday totaled 375.8 billion yuan, up 30 percent year on year, it added.

"The data shows that medium and long-distance tours began to lead the holiday tourism economy. Coupled with the consumption power of tourists returning home to visit relatives, the market scale, consumption structure, quality, and economic benefits of tourism during the Spring Festival holiday are comprehensively returning to normal," said Dai Bin, president of the China Tourism Academy.