CHENGDU, July 28 (Xinhua) -- A total of 1.51 billion rural tourist trips were made during the first half of 2019, a year-on-year increase of 10.2 percent, a report said Sunday.

The report was released during a national work conference on rural tourism held by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. It was convened in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province.

The total revenue during the same time frame reached 860 billion yuan (125 billion U.S. dollars), according to the report.

As of the end of June, rural tourism in China had provided jobs to 8.86 million people, the report said.