As for travel abroad, inbound and outbound cross-border trips jumped 120.5 per cent from last year to 2.88 million, the National Immigration Administration said on Saturday.
During the Chinese New Year holiday in 2019, 12.53 million cross-border trips were made, the Xinhua news agency reported.
China abandoned its strict “zero COVID” policy in early December after protests against the restrictions, allowing people to travel and the virus to spread rapidly throughout the country.
Now that majority of the population had been infected, China has achieved herd immunity, Jiankang Shibao, a state-backed newspaper with a focus on health reported, citing Shanghai-based medical professor Fang Bangjiang.
On the economic outlook, analysts at Japanese brokerage Nomura said in a research note that holiday consumption of in-person services had recovered notably, as seen in the rebound in travel, but households were likely to be moderate in releasing pent-up demand, given their worsening balance sheets.
