A Leisurely Holiday

By Ji Jing

Chinas tourism industry showed strong momentum during the National Day holiday， which lasted from October 1 to 7. According to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism （MCT）， the countrys tourism revenue reached 389 billion yuan （$60 billion） during the period， 59.9 percent of that over the same period in 2019， prior to the outbreak of the pandemic in early 2020. Travelers booked over 500 million trips during the holiday， 70.1 percent of the pre-pandemic level during the same period.

Dai Bin， President of the China Tourism Academy， said that thanks to pandemic control， the performance of the tourism market during the National Day holiday had met expectations， and he is optimistic about the future of the overall industry. According to Dai， tourism operators should be taking advantage of the current preferential government policies and should also be looking for new areas of demand and diversifying their operations.

New trends

New domestic COVID-19 cases prior to the holiday led to a trend， seen nationwide， of a large number of tourists choosing to travel within their home provinces or regions.

One newlywed couple from Yantai， a coastal city in Shandong Province， spent three days of the holiday on a nearby island instead of traveling outside the province. “We can see the sea from the café and its pleasant to read books and talk inside，” the bride， surnamed Lu， told Haiwai.net， the website of Peoples Daily Overseas Edition. “Spending the holiday near my home has saved the trouble of traveling a long distance.”

Short-time， short-distance and high-frequency travel has gained popularity during the holiday. According to MCT statistics， resort hotels and highstandard village homestays in the suburbs of first- and second-tier cities proved very popular. Recreational vehicle camping and self-driving tours in nearby locations also emerged as new trends. About 49.1 percent of tourists chose to travel between cities within their home provinces during the holiday， up 4.1 percentage points year on year. Over 88 percent of tourists traveled within a distance of 300 km. The proportion of tourists who chose a self-drive holiday reached 55.8 percent， up 10 percentage points from last year. Tourists who visited villages and parks in areas surrounding their cities of residence accounted for 28.9 percent and 25.8 percent of the total respectively， up 4.6 and 5.7 percentage points respectively from last year.