HAIKOU /China/, September 20. /TASS/. The number of holiday bookings to the southern province of Hainan for China's National Day holiday (October 1) has increased 982% compared to last year, according to Ctrip, the country’s leading online travel agency.

China's National Day holiday is known as Golden Week. PRC's residents travel around the country and spend time with their families. This year they coincided with the Zhong Qiu Jie Festival (Mid-Autumn Festival), which falls on the 15th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar (this time September 29) and is associated with the end of agricultural work. The holidays will stretch from September 29 to October 6.

According to Ctrip's report, the number of bookings for tourist trips to Haikou, the administrative center of the province, has increased more than 10 times for the vacation period. Bookings to the Sanya resort located in the south of the province increased by 954% compared to the 2022 figures. The number of travel bookings to the southern part of the island accounts for 97% of total bookings in Hainan.

Last August, the province experienced a coronavirus outbreak with Sanya city as one of the epicenters. Strict anti-COVID measures have negatively affected the service sector, especially consumer tourism, restaurant and hotel businesses. Last year, more than 1.32 million tourists visited Hainan during the Golden Week. Revenues of the region's tourism industry during this period exceeded 1.59 billion yuan ($224.3 million at the exchange rate at the time of data publication).

By 2025, Hainan is expected to become an international center of tourism and consumption. The Chinese island is often compared to the American state of Hawaii; natural landscapes, tropical forests, a developed hotel network combined with beaches and a coastline of more than 1.9 thousand kilometers attract visitors from the most distant parts of the world.