Consumption boomed in China on Thursday — the first day of Dragon Boat Festival holiday — benefiting the tourism, entertainment, transportation and catering sectors in particular, which experts said will help facilitate the country's economic recovery and growth.

端午节假期首日掀起的消费热浪给旅游、娱乐、交通和餐饮行业都带来了利好，专家指出这将有助于推动我国的经济复苏和增长。

Tourist destinations across the country were flooded with millions of visitors taking advantage of the three-day holiday, according to data released by various localities.

各地数据显示，端午三天小长假期间，全国各地旅游景点人潮涌动。

Shanghai, for instance, tallied more than 2.76 million visits on Thursday, while Zhejiang's provincial capital Hangzhou, home to the West Lake, registered 882,000 visits, data from local tourism departments showed.

地方旅游部门数据显示，6月22日上海接待游客超276万人次，而拥有西湖美景的浙江省会杭州接待游客88.2万人次。

Tourists also flocked to places such as Zibo, Shandong province, to enjoy its famed barbecue; Chengdu, Sichuan province, to see giant pandas; and Changbai Mountain, Jilin province, to escape the summer heat.

还有许多游客到山东淄博去吃当地著名烧烤，到四川成都去看大熊猫，到吉林长白山去避暑。

Xu Hongcai, deputy director of the economic policy committee at the China Association of Policy Sciences, said that the holiday travel spending spree is further evidence that the tourism sector is recovering after the country fine-tuned its COVID-19 response measures in January.

中国政策科学研究会经济政策委员会副主任徐洪才指出，假期旅游消费热潮进一步证明，自从今年1月份我国优化新冠防控措施以后，旅游行业正在复苏。

More importantly, the holiday tourist boom has shed light on the resilience and strength of the world's second-largest economy and will factor in the nation's overall economic recovery efforts this year, Xu said.

他表示，更重要的是，假期旅游热展示出我国作为世界第二大经济体的韧性和力量，并将助推我国经济的全面复苏。

"I would have liked to travel to any destination as long as I could secure a high-speed train ticket or a flight ticket at a relatively inexpensive price," said Zhang Liyang, a 29-year-old who works for a consulting company in Beijing.

就职于北京一家咨询公司的29岁的张立阳（音译）说：“只要我能买到价格比较合适的高铁票或飞机票，我愿意到任何地方去旅游。”

However, Zhang failed to find cheaper train tickets — which are much more difficult to acquire as the public engages in intense competition to secure them during holidays — and flight tickets were over his budget. He chose to stay in Beijing instead and enjoy some films.

但是，张立阳没买到比较便宜的高铁票（假期低价高铁票太难抢，竞争太激烈），飞机票也超出了他的预算。于是他选择留在北京看电影。

"As a movie buff, homegrown films released during the Dragon Boat Festival did not let me down, especially the crime thriller Lost in the Stars," he said, adding that he also watched another Chinese movie, Love Never Ends, which tells the story of two lonely, impoverished elderly lovers at the end of their lives.

他说：“端午节期间上映的国产电影并没有让我这个电影迷失望，尤其是犯罪惊悚片《消失的她》。”他表示自己还看了另一部国产电影《我爱你！》，该片讲述了两个孤独贫穷的老年人的黄昏恋。

According to movie data platform Maoyan, China's box office receipts from Thursday to Friday morning topped 400 million yuan ($55.7 million).

电影数据平台猫眼电影称，从6月22日至23日晨，国内的票房收入突破了4亿元人民币。

Furthermore, people have shown a stronger willingness to dine out for gatherings during the holiday as evidenced by data released by the Ministry of Commerce.

此外，据商务部发布的数据显示，端午小长假期间，人们外出聚餐的意愿也增强了。

According to China UnionPay Merchant Services, food and beverage spending increased by more than 20 percent year-on-year in the past seven days.

中国银联商户服务平台的数据显示，过去一周食品饮料消费同比上涨超20%。

Zhou Maohua, an analyst at China Everbright Bank, said that the government should roll out more policy measures, such as issuing discount coupons, to sustain robust consumption momentum after the holiday.

中国光大银行分析师周茂华表示，政府应推出更多政策措施，比如发放折扣券，来保持假期后消费的良好势头。

In the face of weakening external demand and sluggishness in the global economy, China needs to fully tap the potential of its domestic consumption to shore up its economic growth this year, he added.

他指出，面对外部需求疲软和全球经济低迷的现实，中国需要充分挖掘国内消费潜力来支撑今年的经济增长。