SHANGHAI, 30 September 2020: China’s domestic travel bookings will spike during the Golden Week holiday that gets underway on 1 October.
According to a Reuters report, some flights are selling out, and travel platforms confirm a surge in hotel bookings.
“The pent-up demand is fuelling optimism the Chinese travel industry has reached a turning point, with hopes the eight-day holiday from 1 October will supercharge a tentative pickup seen in recent months, even as some trepidation over the virus lingers.
The holiday that marks modern China’s founding is traditionally one of its busiest times for travel with 782 million trips registered during Golden Week 2019, which also included 7 million people travelling abroad.
“The demand on tourism that was suppressed for nine months will probably be released in these eight days,” online travel platform Trip.com in a statement, estimating that 600 million trips could be made.
Few people, however, are expected to venture abroad due to various quarantine requirements around the world and a dearth of overseas flights.
But more domestic air bookings started to make a recovery in August cresting in the days ahead of the Golden Week especially on popular routes, like Beijing to the southwestern city of Lijiang with all seats sold out according to travel service provider Qunar.com.
Hotel and airline bookings made during the week 8 to 15 September exceeded those made during the same period last year, Alibaba-backed online travel platform Fliggy said, with hotel bookings for Golden Week up by more than 50%.
But still, Covid-19 remains and restrictions and travel rules are in place. People often have to show health-tracking QR codes, which have played a key part in containing the virus, and some hotels are asking guests to get coronavirus tests before arriving.
(Source: Reuters)
