China's tourism market got off to a good start in the first quarter of this year. According to online travel platform Qunar on Monday, the number of air ticket bookings in and out of cities including Sanya, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Hangzhou and Shenzhen has exceeded that of 2019. Hotel nights in popular cities are up 60 percent from pre-pandemic levels.
Look at the sea, look at the flowers, the heat is not reduced
The revival of the tourism market in 2023 starts at the seaside. On Qunar platform, during the New Year's Day in 2023, hotels in Sanya, Lingshui, Haikou, Xiamen, Wanning and other warm resort cities had nearly 30% of their bookings for staying for more than three days.
Another hot destination is Dali, Yunnan Province. The hit TV show "Where the Wind Goes" has helped the same tourist route to Dali become popular. On Qunar platform, air ticket bookings to Dali in the first quarter exceeded 30% of those before the epidemic. In addition to Dali, the first quarter's hit films and TV shows such as "Crazy" and "Summer Flower" also boosted tourism growth and consumption recovery in Jiangmen in Guangdong Province and Lingshui in Hainan Province.
With the arrival of spring, flowers also rise a wave of upsurge. Wuhan University announced on March 12 that members of the public can make reservations to enjoy cherry blossoms on campus during the management period, which has been delayed for three years. Data from Qunar showed that the number of instant searches for "Wuhan" and "Wuda" increased 4.1 times from the previous day after the news was released. In March, hotel bookings in Wuhan doubled before the epidemic, and hotel bookings around Wuhan University increased 13 times year-on-year.
Not only in Wuhan, but also in many parts of the country, tourists are following the blooming season to enjoy the scenery. A wide range of offline flower appreciation, in this spring into reality.
Price cut for outbound travel
After the optimization and adjustment of the immigration policy, Chinese tourists also began to go abroad. Data from Qunar showed that outbound air ticket bookings during this year's Spring Festival increased 6.7 times compared with 2022, with Thailand, Hong Kong and Macao being popular destinations.
As flights resumed, passenger traffic dropped, and so did ticket prices. Data from Qunar show that since March, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, South Korea and other countries have seen significant month-on-month growth in air ticket bookings, while the average price paid for air tickets has dropped.
So far, China has resumed outbound tourism services in 60 countries on a pilot basis, and many countries have lifted requirements for COVID-19 nucleic acid testing, said Guo Lechun, deputy director of Qunar's Big Data Research Institute. Domestic travelers want to go out and the world needs Chinese travelers. The tourism market got off to a good start in the first quarter, which played an obvious role in driving local catering, entertainment, accommodation and shopping and effectively accelerated the recovery of consumption around the country.
