HAIKOU, July 24. /TASS/. After lifting the ban on interregional group tourism in China, which lasted more than 170 days, Hainan has become one of the most popular travel destinations. These are the conclusions made by experts from the big data lab of the country's online travel industry leader Ctrip, according to www.hinews.cn.
According to a study based on a survey of several thousand company's clients, the majority plan to travel for tourism purposes to other provinces in July, August and October. In percentage terms, these indicators were 56.4%, 47.4% and 52.6%, respectively. On the company's platform for booking tours, the most popular destinations on the search engine were the provinces of Hainan, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Guizhou, Henan, Yunnan, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Jiangsu and Hunan, as well as the cities of Shanghai, Chongqing and Beijing.
Given the ban on group tours abroad is still in force, 88.7% of respondents who took part in the study expressed willingness to travel to other Chinese regions.
At the same time, the city of Sanya (Hainan) turned out to be the most popular search destination in the Ctrip flight booking system. The interest in it from the company's clients has grown by 580% since the beginning of the restrictions on group tourist trips across the country. Sanya is followed by the cities of Haikou (Hainan), Kunming, Chengdu, Chongqing, Xian, Zhengzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Shanghai.
According to a specialist from the Institute of Tourism at Hainan University Meng Kai, after the ban on interregional group tourism introduced amid the novel coronavirus pandemic was lifted, the main criteria for choosing a destination for a trip are good ecology and safe environment for health.
By 2025, the Chinese government intends to create an "international center for tourism and consumption" on Hainan. In order to do so, the "Eastern Hawaii" with their unique natural landscapes, thick rainforests and great climate will establish a developed network of hotels, which blend perfectly with white sandy beaches stretching along the coastline. The combination of an exotic subtropical nature and a modern eco-friendly infrastructure will boost tourist inflow to the island from the most distant parts of the world.