Sweet memories: Tourists taking photos outside the Grand Lisboa casino in Macau. — Reuters
BEIJING: China’s outbound tourism showed a surprisingly good performance over the recent Spring Festival holiday, after the nation eased its Covid-19 control and entry policies in early January, and industry insiders expect a strong recovery of the tourism market this year.
Travel agencies said bookings for overseas trips surged for the seven-day break from Jan 21 to 27, with destinations featuring tropical landscapes and friendly entry policies preferred.
According to travel platform Trip.com, overseas bookings jumped by 640% year-on-year over the holiday.
The group said destinations in South-East Asia such as Bangkok, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur were the most popular choices.
Travel portal LY.com said bookings for outbound flights increased by 258% year-on-year during the holiday, and flights into the mainland also saw a surge of 632%. Bookings for overseas hotels increased by 177%.
“It was my family’s tradition to take an overseas trip once a year, but it’s been hampered by the epidemic in the past three years,” said Lu Yao, a 35-year-old from Beijing who spent the holiday with her family in Thailand this year.
“Thailand is always our first choice, though we’ve been there five times. The people there are friendly to us Chinese people and things are cheap,” she said.
“We spent six days there. Now we are planning our next family trip to Singapore, maybe for the May Day holiday.”
Dai Bin, president of the China Tourism Academy, said that thanks to the optimised Covid-19 control policies and eased travel restrictions, the tourism industry can return to normal.
“Before the holiday, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced travel agencies could resume operating group tours to overseas destinations from Feb 6.
“The friendly signal and warm welcome from destinations including Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines to Chinese travellers also attracted an active response from the world,” he said.
Shen Jiani, a senior researcher at Trip.com, expects a robust recovery of the tourism market this year considering the jump in travel during the holiday.
“With the increasing number of international flights resuming in the future, we expect a tourism boom during the May Day holiday,” she said.
According to the latest figures from the National Immigration Administration, both inbound and outbound visits increased during the holiday. — China Daily/ANN
