Celebrating N-Day week in recovery

97 million domestic journeys made as tourism revenues reach 76 billion yuan

BEIJING: Visitors ambled by the Yellow Crane Tower, a landmark scenic spot in Wuhan, Hubei province, as part of a night tour on the first day of an eight-day national holiday.

To boost tourism in the post-Covid-19 recovery period, the historic building has opened to tourists in the night for the first time since it was reconstructed and opened to the public in 1985.

Key scenic spots in Hubei are open to visitors free of charge from Aug 8 to the end of the year.

Across China, more than 1,000 tourist attractions are offering free or discounted tickets during the National Day holiday.

China’s tourism sector is seeing a strong rebound, buoyed by preferential tourism policies and with Covid-19 effectively under control.

China celebrates its National Day on Oct 1. This year, the week-long holiday has been extended to Oct 8 as the Mid-Autumn Festival also fell on Oct 1.

A total of 97 million domestic journeys were made on Oct 1, equivalent to 73.8% of journeys made on the same day last year, said the country’s tourism authority.

Tourism revenues hit 76.65 billion yuan (RM47bil), a recovery of 68.9% of revenues gained on the same day in 2019.

Feng Ruobin, an executive with the China CYTS Tours Holding Co, Ltd, a primary travel service provider, said the value of their bookings for the holiday has seen a 300% increase compared to the summer peak season as the market recovers.

To effectively guard against the virus, tourist attractions across the country have been required to cap their visitor flows at 75% of full capacity.

They were also encouraged to adopt reservation-only or staggered admission policies.

Home rental reservations nationwide are expected to reach about 80% of their volume during the same period last year, said Tujia. com, a reservation platform for homestays, adding that people tend to opt for homestays as they are more private.

In addition to travelling, trips to the cinema have also become a popular choice for Chinese people.

“I have not been to the cinema for quite a long time. Now, with enough time during the holiday, I plan to watch two or three films on the big screen,” said Qi Bo, who lives in the southern city of Guangzhou.

The Chinese mainland’s daily box office revenue hit 740.4mil yuan (RM454mil) on Oct 1, according to film ticketing platform Maoyan.

That is comparable to the 815.48mil yuan (RM500mil) revenue brought in on the same day last year.

With the Covid-19 epidemic under control, China has eased restrictions on theatres and other performance venues, allowing them to fill 75% of their operating capacities.

Qi said that although cinemas have been reopened for more than two months, there was no great film choices before the holiday.

A number of new releases with good box office appeal have now drawn Qi back to the cinema.

Several films that were originally scheduled for release around the Chinese New Year holiday but had their screenings cancelled due to Covid-19 are now in theaters.