Guizhou province's polychromatic tulip and rapeseed blossoms helped to attract 9.58 million visits, up 30.8 percent. Tourism income rose 32.25 percent to 4.9 billion yuan ($757 million).
Roughly 30,000 travelers a day descended upon Binhai Park in Fujian's Quanzhou city to view rapeseed flowers.
Peony blossoms in Henan province's Luoyang brought 502,000 visitors to the city's major tourism attractions on April 3, generating 10.7 million yuan in ticket sales.
University campuses with flowering landscapes were also popular with Chinese born in the 1980s and '90s.
Many signed up for individual trips to Wuhan University in Hubei province to see oriental cherry blossoms and to Xiamen University in Fujian to see ceiba blossoms, Yan says.
Domestic travelers' average per-capita spending stood at 3,000 yuan during the holiday, Ctrip says. Outbound tourists generally spent twice as much.
"Tourists are now increasingly willing to spend more for better experiences," Yan explains.
The company's high-end products generally saw a 10 percent rise in bookings compared with the same period last year.
Bookings of packages for small groups tripled. International five-star hotels were the top choice of individual travelers, Yan says.
Indeed, while the flowers will be largely gone by spring's final holiday, May Day, China's travelers have come out of hibernation.
Destinations
Hot spots outside the mainland
・ Thailand
・ South Korea
・ Japan
・ Hong Kong
・ Taiwan
・ United States
・ Vietnam
・ Philippines
・ Indonesia
・ Maldives
Domestic attractions
・ Sanya, Hainan province
・ Jiuzhaigou, Sichuan province
・ Kunming, Yunnan province
・ Xiamen, Fujian province
・ Lijiang, Yunnan province
・ Guilin, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region
・ Beijing
・ Xi'an, Shaanxi province
・ Mount Emei, Sichuan province
・ Wuyuan, Jiangxi province
