During the recently concluded five-day May Day holiday, many places in China introduced preferential policies to boost holiday consumption while strictly carrying out epidemic prevention and control measures.
The resurgences of the epidemic in multiple cities since March have weighed notably on consumption growth in China. On April 25, China unveiled guidelines to further tap the country's consumption potential, with detailed measures to tackle short-term bottlenecks and boost longer-term consumption vitality.
China saw a total of 160 million domestic tourist trips and 64.68 billion yuan (about 9.77 billion U.S. dollars) in tourism revenue during the holiday which lasted from April 30 to May 4 this year, said the Ministry of Culture and Tourism on Wednesday.
LOCAL TRIPS ENCOURAGED
Many provinces in China have encouraged residents to travel locally during the holiday, and many scenic areas have offered discounted or free tickets to attract local tourists.
In central China's Hunan Province, many scenic spots have launched preferential policies for locals during the holiday. For example, the Wulingyuan scenic area and Tianmen Mountain in Zhangjiajie offered free tickets for residents from the province.
As of May 2, more than 50,000 visits had been made to Zhangjiajie over the holiday, and B&B bookings also increased 43-fold from the previous week.
In Haikou, capital of south China's Hainan Province, six new double-decker buses started offering city tours, which were among the city's latest offerings for tourists.
"Haikou has newly packaged its tourism products to encourage people in the city and province to travel in Haikou and stimulate holiday consumption potential," said Wang Ke, director of the city's Bureau of Tourism, Culture, Radio, Television and Sports.
Statistics show that Haikou received 307,100 tourists and generated 309 million yuan in tourism revenue during the five-day holiday.
Camping was also a popular choice with holidayers. According to Dianping, the Chinese version of Yelp, searches for camping jumped 151 percent from the previous month and nearly threefold from last year.
"The Xi'an station of the 'HiKing Wild Luxury Camp' was fully booked more than 20 days in advance. Stations under the brand also reached their maximum reception capacity," said Wang Chunwang, who runs a camping business in Xi'an.
