Tourists enjoy their time at a bar in Tenghai fishing village in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province, July 8, 2021. Located in Haitang bay of Sanya, Tenghai fishing village has attracted lots of tourists by developing tourism, surfing and homestay industries since 2018. Photo:Xinhua

Chinese people made 1.871 billion domestic trips in the first half of 2021, up 100.8 percent year-on-year, recovering to 60.9 percent in the same period in 2019, the pre-epidemic level, data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism showed on Thursday.

The growth rate has gradually slowed due to last year's low base, said the ministry. During the beginning of last year, the whole country's tourism industry was dealt a heavy blow amid pandemic shadow. 

In the first quarter of 2021, 1.024 billion domestic trips was made, an increase of 247.1 percent year-on-year; total number of trips made in the second quarter was 847 million, an increase of 33.0 percent year-on-year.

It's also worth noting that growth rate of trips made by people from rural areas is faster than that of urban residents - trips made by urban residents was 1.308 billion, an increase of 91.5 percent and rural residents was 563 million, up by 126.1 percent.

Meanwhile, data also showed domestic tourism revenue was 1.63 trillion yuan ($252.37 billion), up 157.9 percent and recovered to 58.6 percent of 2019.  

Per capita consumption per trip was 872.27 yuan, an increase of 28.5 percent over the same period last year. 

China's tourism industry has been recovering gradually with the effective control of Covid-19 over the past year, while industry players cautioned that scattered cases across the country and a halt to cross-border travel remains a handbrake on full recovery.