BEIJING, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- China Tourism Academy published a report on the development of China's domestic tourism industry in 2020 on September 14, pointing out that domestic market serves as a solid foundation for tourism rejuvenation under regular epidemic prevention and control.
-- Impact of COVID-19 on tourism industry
According to the report, 1.168 billion domestic trips were made in the first half of 2020, with the domestic tourism revenue reaching 0.64 trillion yuan, down 62 percent and 77 percent year on year respectively.
For the ways of impact, transformation, self-rescue, traffic flow, intelligence and live streaming e-commerce become the key words in the tourism industry.
For example, some travel agencies like U-tour and Caissa turn to domestic tourism. Unmanned service, smart guide and other intelligent modes turn out to be the basic requirements for various tourism enterprises and scenic spots. In addition, since many tourism service providers start online recommendation, 2020 has become the inaugural year of live streaming tourism.
For the consumer behaviors, the suburban areas become the first choice of tourists and the appointment tourism turns out to be a new travel habit. The survey data show that 77.4 percent of tourists made appointment to visit scenic spots during the Labor Day holiday.
-- Recovery and rejuvenation of tourism industry
The report believes that the fundamentals of the development of domestic tourism have not changed and the scale of tourism reception has maintained a steady growth. In 2019, the tourism reception reached 6.006 billion visits, an increase of 127.41 percent from 2011. The tourism revenue increased 196.89 percent in 2019 from 2011, reaching 5.73 trillion yuan.
At the same time, market sinking and consumption upgrading have also made the fundamentals of domestic tourism consumption more stable.
In 2020, despite affected by the COVID-19 pandemic from the beginning of the year, the industry's confidence was greatly consolidated by the policies on resumption of tourism in the provinces and the inter-provincial tourism.
In the third quarter of 2020, 80.22 percent of respondents express the willingness of traveling, with a year-on-year recovery of about 90 percent. Nearly 60 percent of travel agents resume operation, and over 95 percent of them remain confident about the future. In addition, more than 90 percent of hotels and scenic spots resume operation.
-- New characteristics boost the high-quality development of tourism industry
Recreational vehicle (RV) camping, fine small group tourism and cloud guide become the new characteristics of the tourism industry, said the report.
RV rental is becoming a popular option for travelers. Data show that RV orders of SAIC Motor MAXUS, a RV manufacturer in China, increased 399 percent, 220 percent and 218 percent in May, June and July respectively, with the total order revenue increasing 257 percent year on year.
Since May 2020, the private group tourism products selected by the travelers saw an increase of 100 percent compared with that of the last year, showed data from Trip.com, indicating that differential and high-quality group travel will have a larger market.
Meanwhile, a large number of domestic scenic spots have launched the cloud guide service. Tourists can obtain the audio explanation online through personal mobile phones and earphones for a safe and contactless cultural journey.
"Under the normal situation of epidemic prevention and control, we are relatively optimistic about the operation of tourism economy in the second half of 2020," said Guo Na, a research assistant with China Tourism Academy.
The report predicts that the annual domestic tourists in 2020 will be 3.426 billion person-times and the total domestic tourism revenue of 2.76 trillion yuan, with a year-on-year drop of 43 percent and 52 percent respectively.
(Edited by Gao Jingyan with Xinhua Silk Road, gaojingyan@xinhua.org)
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