BEIJING - More Chinese chose to travel after the first day of the Lunar New Year, transportation authorities said on Tuesday.

A total of about 5.5 million train trips will be made on Tuesday, compared with 3.18 million on Monday, the first day of the Lunar New Year, when many Chinese stay at home and visit relatives and friends, according to the China Railway Corporation.

China Southern Airlines is expected to send over 200,000 people with about 1,500 flights, most of which are for warm destinations such as Southeast Asia, South Asia and Australia.

The increasingly affluent Chinese are more willing to travel to other domestic places and abroad, making tourism a key sector powering economic growth.

Chinese are expected to make 4.38 billion trips for tourism within China this year, up 9.5 percent on 2015, while a total of 263 million tourist trips are expected to be made by Chinese going abroad and foreigners coming into China, up 5 percent year on year, according to the National Tourism Administration.