09.10.20
14:54
Tourism
Tourism boom signals recovery of China's coronavirus-devastated Hubei
Central China's Hubei Province, once hardest-hit by COVID-19 in the country, has seen its tourist sector almost recover to the pre-epidemic period with a bustling National Day holiday.
The province received over 52.29 million tourists during the golden week travel, raking in a tourism revenue of 34.83 billion yuan (about 5.2 billion U.S. dollars). The figures represent 82.74 percent and 72.26 percent of those recorded in the same period last year, respectively, according to the provincial culture and tourism department.
According to China's largest online travel agency Trip.com Group, ticket reservations for tourist spots in Hubei ranked the fourth on the Chinese mainland from Oct. 1 to Oct. 4.
To show its gratitude to the nation for the support in the fight against COVID-19 during the first half of the year, Hubei has scrapped entrance fees for domestic visitors at nearly 400 A-level tourist spots since Aug. 8. This has led to more than 1,000 travel agencies and over 350 star-rated hotels in the province joining the government-subsidized campaign by offering discounts.
Some hot tourist attractions such as the Yellow Crane Tower, a landmark in the provincial capital Wuhan, reached the cap for the number of tourists it allowed in during the holiday, the provincial culture and tourism department said.
The province has reported no new locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 since June 4. Previously, it reported a total of 68,139 confirmed cases, with 4,512 deaths.
China celebrates its National Day on Oct. 1. This year saw the Mid-Autumn Festival fall on the same day, overlapping with the weeklong National Day holiday and thus stretching the break until Oct. 8.
TV BRICS reports with reference to Xinhua News Agency.
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