Thanks to the nice weather during this New Year Holiday, a large number of tourists visited Yichang.

　　Yesterday, the reporter learned from the holiday office of Municipal Tourism Administrative Bureau that Yichang’s New Year Holiday economy developed steadily with the reception of 326,750 domestic and alien tourists, with a year-on-year growth of 50.92 percent; and the tourism revenue reached 108 million RMB, with a year-on-year growth of 55.86 percent, which gets off to a flying start of the tourism industry of Yichang in the new year.

　　It is introduced that six key scenic spots received 71,300 tourists in total with a year-on-year growth of 128.79 percent. Specifically, the Three Gorges Dam, the Three Gorges Tribe, the Qingjiang Gallery, the scenic attractions at the mouth of Xiling Gorge, the Chexi Folk Custom Scenic Site and the hometown of Quyuan respectively received about 14,000, 6,600, 16,500, 13,400, 9,500 and 11,300 tourists. According to statistics, during the New Year Holiday Yichangdong Railway Station has received about 60,000 passengers. The station witnessed on January 3rd the peak of a small return of about 23,000 passengers, among which 30,200 ones took bullet train, taking one half of the overall passengers. In addition, the highway transportation received nearly 30,000 passengers that were mainly short-distance passengers between urban and rural areas. Furthermore, during the 3-day vacation, 54 airplanes took off and landed in Yichang Sanxia Airport with 4,600 passengers conveyed; on the whole, the number of passengers has increased steadily in the holidays, including the lines from Yichang to Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Haikou since Dec. 31, 2012, with a longer peak period compared with the same period of last year.