Travel: Opening up
Tourism industry picks up as COVID-19 outbreak
Spring is in the air, so is the battered tourism industry as the COVID-19 epidemic recedes in China. Many scenic spots in regions with low risk have reopened to tourists, bringing dawn and hope to the hard-hit industry. Cao Aizhen, 49, was finally relieved to see tourists to his home county in East China’s Jiangxi Province. Cao lives in Wuyuan, dubbed “China’s most beautiful village.” Every year, millions of tourists visit the village in spring for the stunning ““sea sea of cole flflflflflflowers.” flowers.” Th The he splendid natural beauty brings Cao and 100 10 00 other villagers over 6 million yuan (about $848,100) $ 848,100) each year. “Last “Last year, it was a challenge to book a room,” said Wu Xiangyang, chairman of a local scenic area. “This “This year, all of us were unprepared fo for the novel coronavirus.” As the epidemic is leveling offffffffffffffff, off, and tourist sites start to reopen in China, the e tourism industry has shown signs of recovery. “In the past few days, we have see seen en online bookings rebound with more e than 20 rooms booked a day at most,” said Wu.
Rebounding confidence
The domestic traveling i inndustry takes up a big shar share re in China’s economic growth, contributing g 10.94 trillion yua yuan an to the country country’s y’s GDP and d
creating 28.25 million jobs in 2019, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
The ministry also revealed that more than 10 percent of China’s employed population or 79.9 million people worked in tourismrelated areas in 2019.
However, the epidemic put a brake on China’s booming industry during the peak travel period of the Chinese Spring Festival holiday, and the shake rippled across almost all business sectors.
A report published by the China Tourism Academy (CTA) predicted that the industry might see a 56-percent slump in the number of domestic tourists in the first quarter, with the total revenue of the domestic tourism market expected to slash by 20 percent, or 1.18 trillion yuan in 2020.
But now, things are turning around with multiple indices showing a revival of confifififififififificonfidence and willingness to travel.
The latest report conducted by China’s largest online travel agency Trip. Trip.com com Group showed that as of mid- mid-March, March, more than 1,000 tourist sites had reopened to visitors across the country, of which over 100 were 5A attractions, the country’s highest rating for scenic spots.
Jiangxi, a province with abundant tourism resources, has seen all 12 attractions with 5A ratings and 94 4A- 4A-rating rating scenic spots open, according to the local culture and tourism bureau.
Mount Sanqingshan National Park, a UNESCOWorld UNESCO World Heritage Site, reopened on February 22 and received almost 20,000 tourists in 20 days, said Yu Honghu with the local scenic spot.
““The The market fundamentals supporting the operation of the tourism industry have not changed and there is a great possibility that domestic tourism consumption will bottom out and rebound,” said Dai Bin, president of the CTA, adding that the academy is optimistic of China’s tourism marke market in 2020.
Stringent prevention
While the industry geared up for post-epidemic opportunities, there are no signs of relaxation in prevention.
Measures such as registration of personal information, regular disinfection, body tem ture monitoring and caps on d visitors are strictly implement tourist attractions to lower the infection.
Some places are taking thin further by encouraging a shift etiquette.
Zhang Ning, executive dep manager of Huangling Villag county, said they have been pr ists with packed food instead dishes for the guests to share.
“Those measures made ou safer,” said Zhou Zhipeng, wh from Shangrao in western Jia