China sees accelerated recovery of culture, tourism consumption

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Jan 21, 2023, 03:02 ET

BEIJING, Jan. 21, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- A report from People's Daily: "There are more and more visitors coming to Sanya. I received three batches of tourists this morning alone," said Wang Yu, who works in the tourism industry in Sanya, south China's Hainan province.

According to statistics released by Sanya Phoenix International Airport, the airport handled 929,000 passengers in the first 15 days of January this year, up 15.3 percent year on year.

A report on tourism consumption during the 2023 Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, issued by Tongcheng Travel, a market leader in China's online travel industry, said there has been a significant rise in traveling demand during the Chinese New Year period this year, especially for medium- and long-distance trips.

The Spring Festival travel rush officially started on Jan. 7. The number of ticket orders received by Tongcheng Travel for trains departing on the Chinese New Year's Eve and a day before surged 31 percent from a year ago, ranking first in the past three years. Between Jan.1 and 8, the consultation volume for long-distance travel products scheduled for the Spring Festival vacation increased nearly 20-fold. Besides, the search volume for hot destinations, such as Xishuangbanna, Changbai Mountain, Sanya, and Xiamen, more than doubled from a year ago.

The per-customer transaction of travel products scheduled for the Spring Festival period has increased by over 70 percent from a year ago, and the numbers of hotel and tourist site ticket bookings have increased by nearly 20 percent, said Alibaba's travel portal Feizhu. There is also a significant rise in the distance and duration of trips as well as the number of travel companions, according to Feizhu. Besides, the bookings for high-end hotels also improved by nearly 30 percent, and those for rural B&Bs increased by over 100 percent.

Li Donghan, owner of a B&B hotel in Dali, southwest China's Yunnan province, told People's Daily that all rooms had already been booked for the Spring Festival period. The man has cooperated with local farmers to sell local specialties and artware at his B&B.

"There are around 7,000 B&B hotels in Dali. A large portion of the rooms have been booked for the period from now to the Spring Festival vacation, and the figure is over 90 percent in some high-end B&B hotels," said Li Haizhong, head of the homestay association of Dali.

In a theater near the Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum in Lintong district, Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi province, a show about the renowned Terracotta Warriors is chased after nowadays.

Qiao Lida, who manages affairs for the show, told People's Daily that the show was first staged at the end of 2022 and has played to a full house almost every time. "To meet the demand for tourists, we'll for the first time keep playing the show during the Spring Festival," Qiao said.