HEFEI, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- As
trans-provincial travel in China resumed after months-long suspension
due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the usual hustle and bustle returns to
tourist attractions across the country. "I
received over 20 guests from Hebei and Inner Mongolia today, a big
improvement compared with previous months," said Huang Min, a tour guide
based in the eastern Chinese province of Anhui. The
Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced on July 14 that travel
agencies and online tourism companies were allowed to resume their
trans-provincial group tours gradually. The resumption has unleashed the
domestic travel demand of Chinese people who had been confined to their
homes for months to prevent the spread of the virus. Since
July 29, popular tourist destinations across the country have received
nearly three times the tourists compared with last quarter, according to
a report released by the country's major online travel agency Trip.com
Group. "The resumption of
trans-provincial travel has boosted the tourism sector. Take Hongcun (a
historic village in Hongcun Town), for example, its average daily
visitors have increased to more than 3,000, nearly half of the number in
the same period last year," said Hu Weimin, marketing director of
Yixian County Hui Huang Tourism Group. According
to Hu, as the resumption comes ahead of the summer vacation, family
travel has become quite popular, registering an increase of nearly 60
percent. Travel agencies that encountered financial difficulties due to the epidemic have also returned to work. Trip.com Group's report showed that over 4,000 travel agencies have launched domestic travel products on its platform. Liang
Jianzhang, chairman and co-founder of Trip.com Group said in the first
half the year, travel agencies had to rely on short trips to survive and
the revenue only accounted for one-tenth of their previous income. Liang
added that outbound tourism usually accounts for half of the revenue
for travel agencies and 40 percent of their earning comes from
cross-provincial travel. Wu Minghua,
a 34-year-old from Guangdong, said tourists like himself had to sign an
undertaking that mentioned about complying with anti-epidemic measures
such as daily temperature screening, among others. "We
were told before the trip that vehicles will be disinfected every day
to ensure a clean and safe environment for passengers," said Wu. Due
to the impact of the epidemic, small-scale and customized tour groups
began to gain popularity, said Li Kang, head of a travel agency in
Hefei, capital of Anhui Province. "People are willing to pay more for quality service and strict health and safety protection measures," Li said. As
scenic spots are busy preparing for a major inflow of tourists, local
tourism departments also introduced incentives to attract visitors from
outside the region. Provinces such as Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, and
Guizhou announced free tickets or big discounts to tourists. "Hongcun will allow free entry for children under 16 when they travel with their parents," said Hu. "We
are eager to seize the opportunity by offering tailored services to
meet demands of tourists amid the recovering tourism market," said Li.
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