Tourism markets in multiple Chinese localities see robust recovery over Spring Festival holiday

Tourists take a selfie at a traditional culture street in north China's Tianjin, Jan. 26, 2023. (Xinhua/Zhao Zishuo)

The tourism market in multiple localities in China witnessed a robust recovery over the seven-day Spring Festival holiday ending Jan. 27, with throngs of tourists heading to tourist hot spots.

The Taishan Mountain scenic spot in Tai’an city, east China’s Shandong Province, received 380,273 tourists during the first six days of the holiday, up 276.18 percent year on year, or equivalent to 80.46 percent of the pre-COVID-19 level in 2019. In particular, the number of tourists at Taishan Mountain, a core part of the scenic spot, surged 214.69 percent year on year to 243,442, reaching 140.4 percent of the same period in 2019.

As of 3:00 p.m. Jan. 26, 743 A-level scenic spots surveyed in southwest China’s Sichuan Province attracted over 25.47 million tourists on the first six days of the holiday, according to the Sichuan Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism. 

The figure marks a 32.56-percent surge over the same period last year and is 75.98 percent of the pre-epidemic level during the same period in 2019. These scenic spots raked in over 258.3 million yuan (about $38.1 million) of gate receipts during the period, an increase of 54.31 percent year on year and approximately 74.18 percent of the pre-epidemic level during the same period in 2019.

On the first six days of the holiday, the number of tourists received in the main scenic areas in Huangshan city, east China’s Anhui Province, doubled compared with the same period last year, approaching the level during the same period in 2019, according to the city’s data. During the same period, ticket sales revenue of scenic areas in the city exceeded 30 million yuan, higher than the pre-epidemic level in 2019.

As of Jan. 26, flight bookings to popular cities during the holiday were higher than the pre-epidemic level during the same period in 2019. Flight bookings in cities like Beijing, Chongqing, Kunming, Xi’an, Changsha and Wuhan witnessed a rapid recovery.

Bookings of hotels, homestays, and tickets to tourist attractions during the first four days of the Spring Festival holiday surpassed the pre-epidemic level seen in the same period of 2019, according to data from China’s leading online travel agency Ctrip.