By Jonathan Cheng

BEIJING--China's efforts to get its people spending got a boost over the three-day traditional tomb-sweeping holiday, with official and private data showing travel back up to pre-coronavirus levels by some metrics.

Swaths of China's economy, in particular manufacturing and exports, long ago regained their pre-virus levels. But consumer spending, held back by travel restrictions and caution over the possibility of a resurgence, has been a persistent laggard for the past year.

But that, too, is starting to change as spring arrives and the country emerges from the most recent major wave of new cases in January. China's domestic vaccination campaign is gaining steam after lagging behind those of other countries, helping dispel concerns for travelers.

China's National Health Commission said it had administered more than 140 million vaccine doses as of Monday, enough for one in 10 Chinese citizens to have received a dose.

Over the recent three-day traditional tomb-sweeping holiday, which ended Monday, Chinese travelers made 102 million trips, more than double that of the same period a year earlier and equivalent to 94.5% of the trips made over the holiday in 2019, China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism said Monday.

China's largest travel-booking site, Trip.com Group Ltd., said Monday that bookings over the holiday quadrupled compared with a year earlier. The number of domestic flight and hotel reservations grew by double digits from levels recorded during the same three-day holiday in 2019, the company said. Ticket reservations for scenic spots were more than three times 2019's levels, Trip.com reported.

And a private gauge of service-sector activity published on Tuesday rose to a three-month high of 54.3, up sharply from the previous month's reading and well above the 50 mark that separates expansion from contraction. The Caixin nonmanufacturing purchasing managers index was largely in line with the government's own official nonmanufacturing PMI reading last week, which showed a surge to 56.3 in March, from 51.4 in February.

Alice Jin, a 27-year-old native of Nanjing who lives and works in Beijing, took last Friday off and spent the long weekend traveling with a friend to Yinchuan. The capital of Ningxia autonomous region in north-central China is a two-hour flight from Beijing.

For four days, Ms. Jin and her friend ventured into the surrounding desert and were surprised to find some of the scenic spots more crowded than they expected. "We even had to wait in a long line of dozens of people at some famous local restaurants," Ms. Jin said.

Though the spring weather was the main motivation for her first vacation since the pandemic began, Ms. Jin said she wouldn't have traveled without the number of coronavirus infections falling effectively to zero.

"The Covid-19 flare-ups that occurred in the fall and the winter have basically died down, and the services sector has quickly recovered," said Wang Zhe, a senior economist at Caixin Insight Group.

Online travel giant Trip.com attributed the strong holiday numbers to pent-up demand among Chinese citizens, who were encouraged to stay home and prevent the spread of the virus during the Lunar New Year holiday in February, traditionally the year's busiest travel season.

The restaurant and movie business also benefited from the recent improvement in public sentiment. NetsUnion Clearing Corp., which operates a nationwide platform for processing online transactions, said Tuesday that sales volumes for some restaurants and catering companies were more than double the total from the previous year. Film and entertainment receipts were 68% higher than a year ago, the company said.

China's box office raked in sales equivalent to $125 million over the three-day weekend, up more than 17% from the same period in 2019, according to box-office tracker Lighthouse. Cinemas were shut across the country in January 2020, reopening only in July as authorities brought the pandemic under control.

Though China's economy grew 2.3% last year, making it the only major economy to post growth, Beijing is eager to invigorate consumer spending, which has lagged behind the broader recovery. In addition to ensuring the sustainability of the recovery, China's leaders are eager to reorient the economy toward a more domestic footing amid rising geopolitical uncertainties.

Despite the encouraging domestic travel figures, revenue and profitability are still far below their pre-virus levels. Tourism revenue over the three-day weekend came in at the equivalent of $4.14 billion, more than three times last year's intake but less than 60% of 2019 levels, according to China's tourism ministry.

The ministry said that while the recovery is on its way, many trips are still relatively short distance--with discounted hotel rooms and plane tickets, and admission fees either heavily discounted or free.

While sales are still weak, Trip.com said the recent holiday "gave a shock to the heart" of the domestic tourism industry, paving the way for the five-day Labor Day holiday that begins on May 1.

Bingyan Wang and Grace Zhu contributed to this article.

Write to Jonathan Cheng at jonathan.cheng@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

04-06-21 0725ET