Major expos lead to tourist boom and economic growth

My first trip to the 2019 International Horticultural Exhibition in Beijing on May 1 was not particularly a pleasant experience. The venue was chock-a-block and it took me almost three hours-moving at snail's pace in a 1.5-kilometer line - to park my car. Let me do the math: two hours to drive to the exhibition, three hours to park the car and five hours to spend at the exhibition - a 50 percent efficiency rate - not enough to appreciate the plants intertwined with the installations at the China Pavilion, play with the tulips at the Dutch Garden and admire the other exhibits; in short, to take in the atmosphere of the exhibition.

The situation was much better when I visited the exhibition again on Wednesday. It was still crowded but definitely there were fewer people than on May 1 - and the line at the parking lot was not that long.

Perhaps the following data can partly explain the difference. According to a domestic travel agency ctrip.com report, Beijing is one of the 10 hottest tourist destinations during the May Day holiday, and the horticultural exhibition was on the must-visit list of many tourists.