With global vaccination scheme on the way, tourism dependent countries are looking forward to open their borders and welcome the much needed tourist to spur their economy. Domestic tourism cant compensate for foreign visits as most of this visitors are known to provide higher receipts in terms of spending, in Malaysia and number of countries enjoying the influx of Chinese tourist who are known to be high spenders are hopeful for their return, the questions remains…just when?
With the latest data coming out from the Middle Kingdom, this could happen sooner than anticipated, based on the report China’s tourism sector has already reported a strong recovery this year and is expected to continue its current momentum as China further lifts travel restrictions amid a stable COVID-19 situation.
Concurrently, its domestic tourism sector logged encouraging statistics during the Spring Festival holiday in mid-February, showing the desire to travel and with most citizens comfortable with the SOP. Spending is also healthy, with its revenue recorded shows year-on-year growth beginning from the third day of the weeklong holiday, while the number of tourists traveling to and from major tourist destinations like Guangdong, Shanghai and Beijing exceeded or almost reached the levels seen during the 2019 Spring Festival.
The country’s civil aviation industry handled approximately 23.95 million passenger trips in February, a jump of 187.1 percent year on year, the latest data from the Civil Aviation Administration of China showed. Air travel picked up steam soon after the holiday, during which many Chinese people opted to stay put in response to the government’s call to avoid unnecessary gatherings.
Passenger traffic on domestic routes has returned to the level seen during the same period in 2019, according to data from online travel service provider qunar.com. Increasing hotel bookings also pointed to people’s willingness to travel. Sanya, Wuxi and Lhasa are among tourists’ favored domestic destinations.
The number of hotel reservations on May 1, the first day of the five-day May Day holiday, has exceeded the number from the same day in 2019, the data showed. Beijing has relaxed COVID-19 restrictions as the Chinese capital has seen no new locally transmitted cases for over a month.
Data showed soaring air and train ticket bookings in and out of Beijing immediately after the announcement from the municipal government. Industry insiders said people are using the coming holidays to make up for the trips they missed earlier.
According to a report, an estimated total of 4.1 billion domestic tourist trips will be made in China this year, up 42 percent from 2020. Domestic tourism revenue is expected to surge 48 percent to reach 3.3 trillion yuan (about 507.47 billion U.S. dollars), read the report.
China’s economic growth gathered steam in the first two months of 2021, with major economic indicators such as industrial output, retail sales and fixed-asset investment all surging more than 30 percent. With the economy back on track to pre-Covid 19 level, the wealthy Chinese are once again eager to explore and the world is waiting.
