Photo:CFP

Searches for bed and breakfast (B&B) services surged over 400 percent in the suburbs of large cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, with some prices soaring more than 35 percent, as residents stay put for the upcoming Chinese New Year holiday, which this year lasts from February 11 to 17, latest industry reports showed.

Bookings for B&B services across the country have recovered to about 60 percent of the amount seen last Chinese New Year, with short drives and celebrating the holiday in suburban B&Bs becoming a new trend in large Chinese cities, according to a report guesthouse booking platform Tujia sent to the Global Times on Saturday.

This year, people are more cautious in booking B&Bs, given changes in COVID-19 control measures, with a majority of people only starting to make bookings one week prior to the Chinese New Year, the report said. It stated that bookings for B&Bs have witnessed rapid growth since January 30, peaking on Thursday.

On Friday, most tourism-related shares surged, reflecting the market's heightened confidence in a robust recovery of the tourism sector during the seven-day holiday.

Shenzhen-listed Western Regions Tourism Development Co rose 20 percent on Friday to 16.97 yuan ($2.62) a share, Shanghai-listed Jiangsu Tianmu Lake Tourism Co climbed 8.87 percent to 24.55 yuan and Xi'an Tourism Co inched 5.07 percent to 8.29 yuan.

Xu Xiaolei, marketing manager at China's CYTS Tours Holding Co, told the Global Times that B&B reservations at the popular Gubei Water Town in Beijing have already booked out, while other regions like East China also saw fast growth.

"However, the country's overall tourism has recovered to only 50-60 percent of that seen pre-COVID-19," Xu said, noting that the quality of tourism services need improvement to attract travelers that used to love cross-border traveling.

Apart from B&Bs, traveling to southern China to avoid chilly weather is also a choice of many people, with popular cities including Shanghai; Sanya, South China's Hainan Province; Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province and Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province, according to Tujia.

Meanwhile, domestic online travel agency Ctrip said that it will hold a livestream event to introduce quality local tourism products and give out subsidies of over 1 million yuan to promote travel.

Global Times