Tourism enjoying gradual comeback
Print Edition
AS one of the sectors hit hardest by the epidemic, tourism is making a gradual comeback in China with more and more visitors venturing outdoors. The country embraced the 10th China Tourism Day, which was yesterday, with smart efforts to deal with the fallout from the virus.
As epidemic risks have eased in China, most of the tourism destinations, including museums and parks, across the country have reopened. The pent-up demands of millions of tourists and supportive government policies are rebooting the country’s tourism market.
Regular epidemic control measures are taken. Many scenic spots across the country control the number of visitors, while launching an online reservation system to receive visitors at staggered time periods and timely dispersing crowds at key areas. At the Nalati grassland in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, a giant head sculpture wears a tailor-made mask to remind people of necessary virus prevention steps.
Global hospitality giant Hilton has reopened all of its hotels with strict anti-epidemic measures on the Chinese mainland. A marked accommodation recovery is seen in short-distance tours of cities’ nearby tourism spots during weekends and holidays, according to Qian Jin, area president of Hilton China and Mongolia.
Official data showed that during the May Day holiday, the tourism market basically recovered to 50 percent of the level from the same period last year, with a total of 115 million domestic tourists and revenue of 47.56 billion yuan (US$6.69 billion).
Many fresh endeavors are putting the travel experience online via social media platforms and livestreaming sites to engage potential tourists, covering everything from cherry blossoms in Wuhan to introductions of the Palace Museum in Beijing.
Online sales promotions of local produce and other tourism products are also gaining popularity. With the pet phrase of “Just buy it,” government officials and entrepreneurs have become the brand ambassadors and salespersons of the tourism products by championing them online.
James Liang, chairman of China’s largest online travel agency Trip.com Group, has personally put on different costumes to sell discounted hotel bookings. He had staged nine livestreaming sales since March, with transactions totaling over 300 million yuan.
To minimize contagion risks, many local governments encourage travel to local or nearby tourism spots, with specific ticket discounts and consumption vouchers offered to local residents to boost the regional tourism market.
Boost in self-driving tours
Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region even made “love your hometown and explore it” the theme of this year’s China Tourism Day. Shanghai will leverage the reach of online travel agencies and social media platforms to help tourists discover more about the city’s tourism resources and products.
The epidemic has pushed the fast-forward button for the tourism industry’s evolution, market observers pointed out.
Besides reservation-based travel, self-driving tours will also enjoy a boost out of health concerns.
Data from the China Tourism Academy showed that some 64 percent of the surveyed travelers took self-driving tours during the May Day holiday.
Smart travel services are in high demand. Southwest China’s tourism hub Yunnan Province has seen a surge in the use of its smart travel app that enables convenient online reservations, introductions, guides and reviews.
Qian expects the demands for quality travel, family bonding and upgraded consumption — which were suppressed by the epidemic — would become a driving force of consumption during the recovery.
Relying on boosting the number of tickets and trips alone will not work, and technology, culture and service quality will be new growth engines, said CTA’s head Dai Bin. “Revitalizing tourism is not about returning to the past, but adapting to the future.”
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