Domestic tourism market bounces back during five-day holiday

With the COVID-19 gradually being contained in China, the country has experienced a marked surge in the number of travelers and a vigorous revival in its domestic tourism market during the five-day May Day holiday amid continued epidemic control measures, officials said on Friday.

On average, about 24.3 million trips were made every day between May 1 and May 5. Although the number registered a 53-percent year-on-year decline, it went up by 17.9 percent from the average of the previous five days from April 26 to 30, Liu Xiaoming, vice-minister of transport, said at a news conference organized by the State Council Information Office.

The express delivery industry recorded a more robust increase in business volume. Over 1 billion parcels were delivered during the five-day holiday, a year-on-year increase of about 38.9 percent, he added.

Wang Xiaofeng, a senior official with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, said the domestic tourism market too saw "vigorous recovery" in during the holiday.

Ministry data showed that people across the country made 115 million visits to tourist destinations during the holiday, generating 47.6 billion yuan ($6.73 billion) in revenue.

Wang said the market has reached about 50 percent of the level during the same period last year.

He said the ministry has taken a series of measures to ensure safety and control possible spread of the novel coronavirus.

With the help of big data analysis, it managed to sort out 800 tourist attractions that might be subject to the risk of large gathering and required them to comb through their areas to rule out safety hazards, according to Wang.

While all tourist attractions across the country were asked to receive no more than 30 percent of their maximum capacity, 80 percent of the country’s top-rated Class-5A attractions completely turned to online booking systems to limit the number of tourists they received, he added.

The ministry also resorted to remote monitoring system to enhance management. When it found any problems, it reached out to tourist attractions to ensure that all risks were rapidly taken care of, Wang said.