Domestic tourism showing sure signs of recovery

The latest figures from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism showed that China's domestic tourism market maintained a stable recovery in 2021 despite sporadic COVID-19 outbreaks and is expected to continue to grow this year. 

The ministry said on Monday that domestic travel saw a year-on-year rise of 12.8 percent — around 3.25 billion in 2021. That number is about 54 percent of that in 2019, when Chinese people made over 6 billion visits to tourist attractions that year. 

Travelers have shown more willingness to spending money on trips, according to the ministry. The average expense per capita per trip was nearly 900 yuan ($142) in 2021, up 125 yuan, or 16.2 percent from the previous year. 

Tourism-related revenue generated in 2021 also saw a year-on-year increase of 690 billion yuan, reaching about 2.92 trillion yuan. 

On Friday, the China Tourism Academy said at an online conference that the tourism market has endured the severe shock brought on by the novel coronavirus epidemic.

The academy said that overall, domestic tourism is in an undulating recovery, and it holds a prudent but positive attitude toward the market's development this year thanks to government's strict prevention and control measures and its experience containing the epidemic.

According to the academy, the evolving epidemic will remain the biggest uncertainty the tourism industry will face this year, and it's necessary to prepare for any related risks and problems that may appear.

It estimates that domestic tourism will maintain growth in both in visits and revenue of 16 percent and 27 percent, respectively, with 3.98 billion projected visits in 2022 and 3.8 trillion yuan generated.