A growing number of young female consumers, he said, post their experiences and share camping photos online.

He may have been referring to people such as Li Man, a resident of Chengdu, Sichuan province. Li booked a camping vacation for the May Day holiday in Pengzhou, a city near Chengdu in the province. She stayed there for three days.

"I booked a camping package for my family, and it included barbecues, hotpot, movie-watching and some activities for children," Li said.

In the first three months of this year, sales of large-scale tents, foldable tables, foldable chairs and sleeping bags on Tmall more than doubled year-on-year, the online marketplace of Alibaba Group said.

Before the holiday, the Ministry of Commerce said at a news conference that it would work with local commercial authorities to promote consumption, introduce targeted measures to boost consumption based on local conditions, promote the sustained recovery of consumption and ensure that consumption continues to underpin economic development.

In late April, the State Council, China's Cabinet, unveiled guidelines to further boost consumption potential and promote sustained recovery of consumption in the country.

A number of local governments issued consumption vouchers to stimulate spending.

Compared with the Yangtze River Delta region and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei cluster, where new regional cases of the COVID-19 emerged recently, the western part of China, including Chengdu and Chongqing, and the Pearl River Delta region have seen stable control of the contagion and their residents actively taking trips.

Ahead of the holiday, Guizhou province issued cultural tourism consumption vouchers of 10 million yuan. Yunnan province issued the first phase of vouchers worth 8 million yuan, and Hainan province issued vouchers worth 5 million yuan.

Hubei Culture & Tourism Group Co Ltd said it would issue consumption vouchers with a total value of over 100 million yuan. A few cities in Zhejiang province have also issued vouchers, free admission tickets and half-price tickets to attract more travelers.

Some sightseeing spots, such as the Lushan Mountain scenic area in Jiangxi province and Tianmen Mountain in Zhangjiajie, Hunan province, offered free admission tickets to local residents, hoping to encourage residents to travel locally.

Such vouchers have significantly boosted bookings for bed-and-breakfast accommodation in many regions.