Tourists Flock to Witness Quanzhou Spring Festival 2025

The 2025 Spring Festival in Quanzhou, a historic coastal city in southeast China’s Fujian Province, saw robust tourism growth, with 10.12 million visits and tourism revenue hitting around $1.4 billion, up 23.6% and 25.9% y-o-y respectively, topping Mafengwo’s “2025 Top 10 Hottest Festive Towns” list.

Traditional performing arts fuelled the boom and The Marionette Theatre of Quanzhou staged 94 shows during the holiday, drawing over 30,000 spectators and generating 2 million yuan in ticket sales.

Daily performances surged to seven shows amid soaring demand, with online tickets selling out instantly. Over 300 intangible cultural heritage opera shows, including Liyuan Opera and Gaojia Opera, attracted predominantly young audiences.

Cultural intellectual properties (IPs) emerged as economic drivers. The green snake sculpture at Quanzhou Confucius Temple, blending with local elements like oriental variegated coral-beans and scholar hats, spurred $140,000 in plush toy and souvenir sales. Local enterprises like Peak Group contributed designs such as the “seven-colour coral-bean snakes” installations displayed at landmarks.

Tourism gains are revitalising cultural preservation. The string puppet troupe reinvests earnings into innovation and facility upgrades, while the music band modernizes 800-year-old local music, performing globally from Shanghai to London.

Annual data reveals the city hosted 100 million tourists in 2024, with tourism spending up 20.8 percent to nearly $16.7 billion, energising transport, hospitality, and catering sectors. The integration of cultural heritage with tourism has forged a sustainable model, empowering both economic growth and tradition revitalisation.

Tourists Throng Ski Resorts              

Elsewhere in China, the number of skiers at many ski resorts has reached a new high since the Spring Festival. This surge in visitors has led to a significant increase in the income of winter tourism destinations.

Additionally, the rise in ice and snow activities has stimulated the manufacturing of ice and snow equipment and the development of ice and snow venues. The passenger flow at various winter tourism resorts nationwide has also reached record levels. Specifically, the total number of visitors to 934 ski resorts in China amounted to 17.232 million, 10% more than last year’s Spring Festival holiday.

The number of visitors to Harbin Ice and Snow World in Heilongjiang has exceeded 100,000 for the first time, marking the highest attendance in its history. Additionally, the number of skiers at the Xinjiang Jiangjun Mountain International Ski Resort surpassed 10,000 in a single day, setting a new record. Jilin Vanke Songhua Lake Resort experienced a 40.1% increase in year-on-year tourist numbers, with a single-day attendance reaching its highest ever.

The Silk Road Mountain Resort in Urumqi County, Xinjiang, has opened 15 ski trails for beginners, intermediates, and advanced skiers, resulting in a nearly 40% increase in visitor traffic compared to typical figures.

Winter tourism economy is thriving not only in northern China but also in the south with Guangzhou Hot Snow Miracle witnessing tourist influx, which increased by 10% y-o-y during the Spring Festival holiday.

During the Spring Festival holiday, the provinces of Liaoning, Heilongjiang, and Jilin, known for their abundant ice and snow resources, exhibited remarkable tourism performance, ranking among the highest in the country for tourism income. Specifically, Liaoning Province saw an increase in tourism revenue of 30.11%, while Heilongjiang Province experienced a 23.80% y-o-y growth.