Three cruise ships full of passengers sail on the Yichang section of the Yangtze River on Wednesday. As floods dropped, the number of tourists visiting Yichang increased, and the tourism industry in the Three Gorges region picked up again. Photo: cnsphoto

With customers rushing to buy train tickets for the coming National Day holiday, China's tourism industry, battered by the coronavirus lockdown and travel restrictions, is likely to see its biggest rebound since the COVID-19 outbreak, according to an industry expert. 

On the first day of sales of railway tickets for the National Day holiday, seats for the country's popular resorts, both traditional long-haul destinations and city-break ones, were sold out. 

On 12306.cn, China Rail's official website, most tickets departing from Beijing on September 30 to Harbin, Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province are gone, as are tickets to Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province. Sleeper train tickets to Sanya, South China's Hainan Province, a popular tropical destination for the summer, are also sold out.

Demand is being driven by containment of the coronavirus as well as a recovery in Chinese tourists' spending power, and tourism will be at its busiest during the National Day holiday since February, when COVID-19 brought the sector to a halt, Jiang Yiyi, a professor at the School of Leisure Sports and Tourism under the Beijing Sport University, told the Global Times. 

"The industry has been paralyzed for months, but as most COVID-19 cases have been cleared in China, and as economic activities have begin to return to normal, this year's eight-day national holiday will be the perfect time for travel," Jiang said. 

China started to resume inter-provincial travel in mid-July, after 172 days of suspension due to the pandemic.

The Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in Northwest China said on Wednesday it had fully restored normal activities, including all tourist attractions, after reporting zero new COVID-19 cases for 16 consecutive days as of Monday.

The relaxation of travel restrictions in July has been driving a steady resumption of tourism. According to a report by Ctrip.com, since mid-July, over 450,000 people have signed up for group travel products on the platform. 

"Since the Xinfadi wholesale food market outbreak ended, and all the patients were discharged, I feel it is safe enough to travel," a Beijing resident surnamed Zhang told the Global Times. She has booked air tickets to Yantai, in East China's Shandong Province, for the National Day holiday.

The reopening of schools across the nation at the beginning of September has also encouraged domestic travel, Jiang said. 

However, Jiang noted that uncertainties persist for the remaining months of 2020. 

"The recovery of the sector depends on the COVID-19 cases, and any sporadic flare-up might cause a spike of fear among tourists and a temporary suspension in the region," Jiang said.

Global Times 


Newspaper headline: Tourism set for post-COVID peak during holiday