China tourism sector partly resumes work
China’s tourism industry, which has been hit hard by the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pneumonia, is cautiously resuming operations under the policy guidance of local authorities that are struggling to push the economy forward.
The Culture and Tourism Bureau in Lijiang, Southwest China’s Yunnan Province, announced that the city’s tourism sector fully resumed operations from Thursday, since it saw no new coronavirus cases for 18 consecutive days.
East China’s Zhejiang and Shandong provinces and Southwest China’s Sichuan Province have also issued new policies to promote the resumption of production and reopening of tourist attractions.
Tourists are also coming back. The renowned West Lake scenic area in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, saw 1,900 and 3,900 people visiting on Wednesday and Thursday.
Zhejiang Romantic International Tourist, a travel agency based in Zhejiang’s Wenzhou, one of the cities with the most confirmed infection cases outside of the epidemic epicenter Hubei Province, has received a few orders since some local tourist attractions gradually reopened this week.
According to a forecast from the China Tourism Research Institute, tourism revenues in the first quarter of 2020 posted a year-on-year negative growth of 69 percent and the number of domestic tourists sank 56 percent.
Throughout the whole year, tourism revenues will reduce by 1.18 trillion yuan ($167.6 billion) and the number of domestic trips by 932 million, said the institute.
However, a full rebound still needs time as most domestic tourism agencies have not yet restarted operations yet.
We are still waiting for the approval from relevant departments to restart our businesses,” Xu Xiaolei, manager of marketing at China’s CYTS Tours Holding Co, told the Global Times on Friday.
The company’s business has been halted since January 27, according to Xu.