Domestic tourism industry set for 'full recovery' by summer

Demand at travel destinations remains robust after Spring Festival holiday

China's tourism industry will embrace a full recovery this summer with the market showing continuous growth from the Spring Festival holiday in late January thanks to the optimized COVID-19 control policies, according to an industry expert.

Wu Yuhan, an associate researcher from the China Tourism Academy, said at a news conference on Monday that the tourism industry experienced a tough time last year because of epidemic resurgence, tightening control policies and caution about traveling.

According to a report by the academy, domestic tourism shrank last year to 2.53 billion visits, falling by 22.1 percent year-on-year. Tourism revenue also decreased by 30 percent to 2.04 trillion yuan ($297 billion) last year.

However, the academy has positive expectations for the nation's tourism industry this year as the market has shown its best performance for the Spring Festival holiday in the past three years.

Wu said that according to the academy's estimates, domestic travel and tourism-related revenue this year can reach about 70 percent and 75 percent respectively of that in 2019 — before the pandemic hit. Inbound tourism is projected to recover to 30 percent of that in 2019.

The academy estimates that domestic trips will reach about 4.55 billion this year, up 73 percent year-on-year, and the revenue generated will be 4 trillion yuan, a year-on-year rise of 89 percent.

According to the academy, the inbound and outbound visits will see twofold growth from the previous year, totaling about 90 million this year.

Zhao Wei, director of the culture and tourism bureau of Yunnan's Dali Bai autonomous prefecture, took the Spring Festival holiday as an example, saying that the prefecture had seen a surprisingly good recovery of its tourism industry with numbers even better than those in 2019.

"During the seven-day break, the prefecture received 4.23 million visits, outperforming any other county and city in the province," she said. "Thanks to the popular television series Meet Yourself, which is a love story starring Liu Yifei and Li Xian and featuring the breathtaking views of Dali, we received great attention from the public and embraced a travel boom."

According to her, the prefecture saw 9.43 million visits in January, up 193 percent year-on-year. The number is about 107 percent of the same period in 2019.

However, the tourism industry still has some problems that need to be fixed this year in order to pursue a full recovery and sustainable development.

The industry had experienced a serious brain drain in the past three years, and while it's important to attract these people back it is also important to produce talent with an all-round knowledge of culture, tourism and data analysis to promote the industry's recovery and high-quality development, said Tang Xiaoyun, vice-president of the academy.