The International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival attract many visitors to Harbin, Heilongjiang Province in northeast China, on January 1 (XINHUA) 

Chinese tourist resorts began 2021 on a positive trajectory, with tourists flocking to the snow spots and hot springs during the New Year's holiday. The Chinese are spoilt for choice when it comes to winter pleasures. Bookings of bed and breakfast (B&B) in Chongli, Hebei Province in north China, and the Songhua Lake tourism region in Jilin Province, northeast China, the two most popular snow resorts in the country, increased by more than 600 percent compared to the same period last year, according to Tujia, a B&B-booking platform.

Despite the shadow of isolated cases of COVID-19 nationwide, the tourism market has remained stable, as can be seen from the flight, train, and hotel booking data on Trip.com, a leading online travel agency. An increasing number of Chinese people now prefer to travel domestically while complying with government regulations on capacity restrictions and protective measures. As a result, domestic short-haul tours have been taken by storm.

However, preparations to revive the tourism sector started well before the New Year's holiday. The government began to implement measures in 2020 as the sector strove to mitigate the epidemic's economic impact, and actively adapted to market changes.

Concrete measures 

On July 14, 2020, the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued a statement authorizing interprovincial group travel and increasing the visitor limits at tourist sites from 30 percent to 50 percent of the capacity.

By the third quarter of 2020, provincial governments had already taken multiple steps to support the economy. Among other things, consumer vouchers played an important role.

In August, Shandong Province in east China launched a cultural promotion campaign for the summer holidays, featuring cultural shows, festivals, exhibitions, and opportunities for visitors to experience its intangible cultural heritage. A total of 150 million yuan ($23 million) of consumer vouchers were issued and used at the provincial, city, and district levels, generating profits of 984 million yuan ($152 million) directly and 11.516 billion yuan ($1.8 billion) indirectly.

Fu Yifu, Director of the Financial Research Center of the Suning Institute of Finance, told International Business Daily that consumption vouchers are supporting the tourism sector's recovery, improving the living standards of low-income families affected by the economic downturn, and laying a solid foundation for long-term policies to promote consumption while boosting domestic demand.

At the end of July, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region introduced policies to reduce the operating costs of local tourism companies and provide them with credit facilities. In addition, another 140 million yuan ($22 million) was earmarked to compensate for the losses of regional tourist sites that suffered a drastic drop in visitors due to the Covid-19 epidemic. Special funds were also put in place in collaboration with financial institutions for projects in the cultural and tourism sector, which benefited more than 1,000 enterprises.

The government also decided to promote tourism in Inner Mongolia on a national scale, both online and offline, through a two-pronged marketing campaign. An online campaign focused on social media and live broadcasting. Offline, the departments and company managers visited neighboring provinces such as Shanxi and Liaoning to promote Inner Mongolia's tourism destinations. Tourism cooperation agreements were concluded with 32 cities and 126 companies.

Tourist sites, too, learned how to use new technologies to increase their visibility throughout the country. In 2020, Laojun Mountain in Henan Province, central China, became the nation's most popular mountain thanks to a livestreaming session on November 21. The program, which showcased the mountain's magnificent landscapes and snowy peaks on Douyin's short video platform, was watched by 2 million people. The destination is now attracting many mountain enthusiasts: Revenues in November and December 2020 reached 70 million yuan ($11 million), a seven-fold increase over the same period in 2019 and the best figures since its opening.

The participation of social media influencers inspired hundreds of millions of subscribers to come and discover this destination. "Immediately after watching the videos, I jumped into my car and made the 8-hour journey to the mountain," said an Internet user.

Tourists at the Chaka Salt Lake in northwest China’s Qinghai Province on September 23, 2020 (XINHUA) 

Digital transformation 

Factors such as restrictions on international travel due to the global pandemic situation, special offers, and rapid online development of the tourism sector are currently benefiting the domestic tourism market.

Last April, as the tourism sector was paralyzed, officials from tourist offices, businesses, and cultural and tourist sites from several Chinese cities turned to livestreaming to remain visible and promote their history, local stories, and specialties. At the darkest moment in its history, when Trip.com had to face a large number of refunds and cancellations without earning any income, Liang Jianzhang, the company's founder, refused to give up. Instead, he set up a team dedicated to livestreaming, and even personally promoted tourist activities while waiting for the situation to improve.

The epidemic has been an exceptional catalyst for the development of e-tourism in China, as confined to their homes, hundreds of millions of Chinese people have contributed to its boom, for instance, by visiting online exhibitions. According to Bai Zhiwei, Vice President of travel services provider Tongcheng-Elong, COVID-19 has accelerated the Chinese tourism sector's digital transformation.

In November, a meeting of the State Council, China's cabinet, approved a series of measures to support the development of "Internet + tourism" and promote the deeper integration of advanced technologies (Internet, big data, and artificial intelligence) in tourism.

Thanks to strict epidemic prevention and control measures, the recent COVID-19 cases should not affect the tourism market, Jin Ying, CEO of Caissa Touristic in China, told China Newsweek. "Depending on the evolution of the global situation and the 2021 vaccination campaign, countries with strong prevention and control measures against COVID-19 will be able to resume tourism links with China," he said with confidence.

(Print Edition Title: Wheels Up ) 

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