LONDON, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- China's upcoming Golden Week holiday is expected to give Britain-bound tourism a boost as latest figures show flight bookings have increased to almost half of pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels, the country's top tourism chief told Xinhua.
Golden Week begins on Sept. 29 this year, marking the annual weeklong period that includes the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day in China.
Patricia Yates, chief executive officer (CEO) of VisitBritain, the official tourism website of Great Britain, said that China was an important inbound visitor market for her country. In 2019, Chinese tourists generated 1.7 billion British pounds (2.07 billion U.S. dollars) in economic impact to Britain.
"The upcoming Golden Week presents a timely and valuable opportunity to welcome Chinese visitors back to Britain," she said.
Yates said that airline bookings from China have markedly recovered and "it is also great news that China has reinstated Approved Destination Status for Britain, so Chinese tour operators can sell group travel."
Later this year, VisitBritain will bring British travel suppliers to China for meetings with leading local buyers in what will be the agency's first trade mission to the Asian country since 2019.
According to research conducted by VisitBritain, flight bookings from China to the UK are currently tracking at 43 percent of 2019 levels. This compares with January of this year, when bookings were just 6 percent of 2019 levels.
"We can see recovery in scheduled direct international airline capacity between China and the UK as 2023 continues. Airline seat capacity from China to the UK first met 2019 levels in August and is set to exceed that by 6 percent in September," said a spokesperson for VisitBritain.
