Tourism recovers as restrictions ease

Domestic tourism is in stable recovery after the just-completed Dragon Boat Festival thanks to the loosened tourism restrictions by the central government.

Just before the holiday started, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism released a notice asking travel agencies to suspend group tour services only in counties or districts with medium or high infection risks, and also services for booking hotels and flight tickets.

Previously, the cross-provincial group tours were suspended whenever the departure or destination provinces had places in medium or high risks of infection. Now the restrictions targeted just counties and districts.

The ministry said the loosened restrictions helped boost the recovery of the tourism market over the break with some long-distance tour packages regaining popularity among travelers.

Also, some cultural sites and tour products highlighting Chinese traditional culture such as watching the dragon boat races and wrapping zongzi, or glutinous rice dumplings, the key delicacy of the festival, were favored by travelers.

According to latest figures by the ministry, travelers nationwide made over 79.6 million trips over the three-day break from Friday, down by 10.7 percent compared with the same period of previous year. Revenues generated reached about 25.8 billion yuan ($3.87 billion), falling by 12.2 percent year-on-year.