The Yangchenghu Expressway Service Area along the Shanghai-Nanjing Expressway in Suzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province Photo: Xinhua

Bookings for cross-provincial travel in China surged 365 percent for the coming holidays on Monday, compared with August 20, as cross-provincial trips significantly rose thanks to the effective containment of recent COVID-19 outbreaks, a report showed.

Analysts stressed the importance of fully opening up the domestic travel sector while flexibly implementing epidemic prevention measures for the Mid-Autumn Festival and the National Day holiday, which will help boost the country's economic recovery, after the Delta variant recently caused another wave of domestic outbreaks.  

The number of bookings for cross-provincial trips on Monday surged 365 percent for the three-day holiday that marks the Mid-Autumn Festival, compared with August 20, as multiple provinces across China issued notices to resume cross-provincial travel around August 20, according to a report released by online travel platform Trip.com on Tuesday. 

The number of tourists purchasing travel products for Beijing during the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, which runs from September 19 to 21 through Trip.com on Monday, increased by nearly eight times compared with August 20, per the report.

Beijing has become the top travel destination for the holidays, and one of the reasons is the Beijing Universal Studios Resort, which announced that it will open from September 20.

A passenger leaves the Universal Beijing Resort metro station on the Batong metro line in Beijing. The line was connected with Beijing's main metro line 1 on Sunday. The Universal Studios Resort in Beijing, which is said to be the world's largest, is scheduled to open on Wednesday with invited guests. Photo: VCG

As the Mid-Autumn Festival and the October "golden week" - the National Day holiday - are approaching, it is crucial to open up domestic travel while ensuring the strict implementation of epidemic prevention measures, Song Ding, a research fellow at the Shenzhen-based China Development Institute, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Song noted the importance of resuming domestic tours as it will also help other industries to recover from the previous outbreaks in many provinces that were caused by the Delta variant, with an emphasis on flexibly implementing the epidemic prevention measures.

Chinese health officials reminded the public to remain cautious and avoid traveling to medium- and high-risk areas during the coming two holidays at a press conference on Tuesday.

They emphasized the importance of following personal protection protocols when traveling, according to media reports. 

Large theme parks have become a tourist hotspot for the holiday, influenced by the opening of Beijing's Universal Studios Resort. Mountains and ancient towns are also popular travel destinations, as travelers are taking advantage of the cool weather and beautiful scenery of the fall season. 

Meanwhile, with cross-provincial tours resuming across the country, bookings for flight tickets and hotel combos and group tours for some hot destinations also surged.

For instance, bookings for group tours for Southwest China's Sichuan Province during the Mid-Autumn Festival break surged 528 percent on Monday on Trip.com after the province resumed cross-provincial tours on August 22. 

Global Times