THE first shortened May Day holiday saw a rise in motoring tourists and visitors from nearby cities, the Shenzhen tourism board has revealed.

The city received more than 670,000 visitors, who spent a total of 478 million yuan (US$63m) in town between May 1 and 3. Of these, more than 450,000 were domestic tourists.

The 18 theme parks and resorts around the city had more than 620,000 tourists in the three days. A poll by Happy Valley showed that more than 46 percent of the visitors were local citizens and nearly 40 percent were from other cities in Guangdong. Although no further details were given, tourism authorities said the three-day holiday -- cut from a weeklong holiday -- naturally resulted in a fall in the number of visitors from long distances.

Nationwide, the number of tourists visiting major scenic spots around China dropped by nearly a quarter during this May Day holiday compared with the weeklong vacation last year.

A total of 8.94 million people visited 119 major resorts around China from May 1 to May 3, Xinhua said Saturday.During last year's May Day holiday, a record 179 million people went traveling, up 22.7 percent from the previous year.

The Central Government cut the length of the May Day holiday from a week to three days starting this year to avoid overcrowded traveling. To give its employees the vacation time back, one-day holidays have been allocated to traditional festivals like the Tomb-sweeping day and the Dragon Boat Festival.

The "golden week" holidays were launched in 1999 to encourage people to spend more money to boost the national economy.

(Li Dan)