China's domestic tourism market bounces back: media
China's domestic tourism market has fully recovered, reported Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao newspaper, citing insiders who said China saw good numbers in tourism market in terms of both visitors and revenue in the Labor Day holiday from May 1 to 5.
Domestic travel in China was strong during this year's Labor Day holiday. Chinese tourists undertook 230 million trips this year, up 103 percent from 2019 (pre-pandemic) levels, Forbes reported on Thursday.
May 1 to 5 marked the "hottest" public holiday for leisure travel since the coronavirus pandemic, Chinese travel booking site Trip.com said in a statement Wednesday, as per CNBC.
Labor Day holiday bookings for hotels, car rentals and other services more than tripled from the same period a year ago, and rose more than 30 percent from 2019, Trip.com said, without disclosing dollar amounts, CNBC reported.
One five-star hotel in Shenzhen recorded a 99 percent occupancy rate for three straight days through May 2. "It's a combination of discounts given on room rate and less demand for our food catering," a manager at the hotel told Nikkei Asia.
Tourists spent 113.23 billion yuan ($17.5 billion) during the break that ended Wednesday, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism -- higher than last year's 47.6 billion yuan, Nikkei Asia reported on Thursday.
Millions of Chinese rushing to travel during the five-day holiday is a sign of gradual recovery in domestic consumption, CNBC said.
Rising passion for traveling fueled consumption in China's domestic market during the holiday. As vaccinations continue to be administrated and experiences for epidemic prevention and control continue to accumulate, the domestic tourism market will probably show a sustained and stable recovery, the Lianhe Zaobao newspaper reported.