China's control of virus hailed as resorts enjoy record bookings

The domestic leisure and entertainment industry has embraced rapid growth due to China's effective virus control, according to a hospitality industry professional.

Xavier Desaulles, CEO of Asia-Pacific Markets of Club Med, made the remarks at the 16th World Leisure Congress, which was held in Beijing's Pinggu district last week.

Thanks to an encouraging economic performance in 2020, tourism service suppliers have welcomed increasing demand. Local and short-distance tourism is proving to be one of the most popular products, Desaulles said.

During the Qingming Festival holiday in early April, three Club Med Joyview resorts in China were almost fully booked. Club Med expects the same during the Labor Day holiday in May.

Holiday resorts run by Club Med are situated all over the country. At this year's leisure congress, whose closing ceremony was held on April 18, the main task for the company as an exhibitor was to learn more about Beijing customers' spending habits after the COVID-19 outbreak.

"We promoted our short-distance tourism products around Beijing like the Club Med Joyview Resort in Yanqing and Club Med Joyview Beidaihe Resort, both of which are one to three hours' drive from Beijing's central area," Desaulles said.

"We looked forward to learning about changes in the whole industry and the latest consumer trends through the event, in a bid to provide better products that meet consumers' expectations."

Compared with the booming domestic market, outbound tourism is still sluggish.

"Since the pandemic, the whole outbound tourism market has been suspended for more than a year. And we are eager to know the time when outbound tourism will be restarted, "said Gao Liying, deputy head of Switzerland Tourism's China operations.

The main job for them, while participating in the event, was to collect information about new requirements for destinations. One of the changes they have observed is that more people are looking for less-crowded tourism sites and attractions closer to nature, Gao said.

"What we are doing is to make sure that once outbound tourism is reopened, we can provide proper products," she said.

Currently, only a small group of people visit Switzerland－including business travel and trips by Chinese people to their relatives and friends－as it is still risky to travel abroad amid the pandemic.

"So many restaurants and hotels remain closed. The recovery from the pandemic in Europe appears to be slow and we need to wait patiently," Gao said.

Outbound tourism is expected to recover after more people get a vaccine passport, which is internationally certified by the World Tourism Organization, she said.

"We are launching live broadcasts via WeChat and microblog platforms," she said. "We have invited Swiss guides to share the beautiful scenery of Switzerland through the live broadcasts, which is a way to remind our Chinese customers not to forget Switzerland."