As epidemic wanes in China, holiday travels warm up yet with caution

BEIJING -- Chinese travellers are embracing a five-day International Labor Day holiday with caution although the coronavirus epidemic wanes.

The holiday that begins on May 1 will see Chinese tourists mainly taking trips in or around the city they live because of the ongoing epidemic, according to a report recently released by the Trip.com Group, a Chinese online travel agency.

As the epidemic is moving in a positive direction, the total number of tourists during the holiday is expected to bound dramatically since the outbreak of the epidemic, said a practitioner of the tourism industry.

On Trip.com, the ticket sales for visiting tourist attractions during the holiday have increased sharply, as over 4,000 tourist attractions across China will open to the public during the holiday, said the report.

The sales of ticket and hotel combos for the holiday have also gone up, it added.

Chinese tourists will come mostly from cities such as Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu and Hangzhou, and the top 10 destinations include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chengdu and Shenzhen, said the report.