Photo: Xinhua

Shanghai restarted travel group tours on Friday after a three-month suspension, a sign reflecting the recovery of tourism, and that the nation's travel market is now rebounding.

A group of 22 tourists arranged by travel agency Spring Tour left Shanghai on Friday to Northwest China's Gansu Province for a six-day trip, becoming the first cross-provincial travel group since the epidemic hit Shanghai this year. 

A reception from Spring Tour told the Global Times on Friday that the route for next week has been fully booked, and only three seats were available for July 13. In addition, the travel agency also opens routes to other provinces and regions including Fujian, Xinjiang, Guizhou, Shanxi and Shaanxi. 

Bookings for group tours from Shanghai to other provinces on Wednesday has increased by 105 percent compared with the previous day, data from travel platform Trip.com said, and the number of air tickets booked departing from Shanghai increased by nearly 70 percent compared with the previous day.

Sanya, Zhoushan and Beijing are the top three destinations for Shanghai tourists.

Shanghai-based Juneyao Airlines told the Global Times on Friday that its flying capacity in the middle of July will recover to around 90 percent of the same period of 2019.

Hainan Airlines said that they change larger aircraft from single-aisle to wide-body aircraft such as the A330, which can carry up to 400 passengers on flights from Shanghai to Sanya, South China's Hainan Province. 

Renewed enthusiasm kept rising after China on Wednesday said it will no longer mark cities with COVID infections in the travel tracking system, amid efforts to balance epidemic control and socioeconomic development.

Previously, those from marked cities often faced restrictions that prevent them from traveling unless they underwent quarantine at their destination.

The summer vacation is expected to unleash a wave of pent-up demand for family travel, and as millions of Chinese get going again, dining and catering services will also receive an additional boost, Zhao Jingqiao, director of the Service Economy and Catering Industry Research Center under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.

The enthusiasm springing from the Shanghai market has been echoed with the reopening of Shanghai Disneyland on Thursday.

A tourist surnamed Yang told the Global Times this is her first visit to Shanghai Disneyland.  "Everyone struggled (during lockdown). I am so happy that we can come here again after so many months. Just happy," Yang told the Global Times.

By 7 pm on Thursday, hotel bookings within a 3-kilometer radius of the resort rose 36 percent from the same period last week, according to Trip.com.

Travel fever has also been seen by the tourists visiting Beijing Universal Resort, which reopened on June 25.

The reopening of Shanghai Disneyland and Beijing Universal Resort plays an "amplifier" role in the post-epidemic recovery of the tourism industry in Shanghai and Beijing, and even the whole country, Huang Xiaojie, chief marketing officer of qunar.com, told the Global Times.

To boost the upcoming travel peak, nearly 500 scenic spots across China have announced free tickets or discounts for special tourists including students and medical workers, and the number is still rising.

The Beijing Daily reported that the Huangshan Mountain welcomed 10,008 tourists on June 26, a new high since March (excluding the free ticket promotion for people living in Huangshan during the May Day holidays), and the hotel occupancy rate in the scenic area reached 100 percent.

Data from Trip.com on Friday showed that the overall tourism orders in East China's Zhejiang Province in the past week increased by nearly 30 percent compared with the previous week, air ticket orders increased by nearly 70 percent, and hotel orders increased by over 30 percent.

Daily flights over the past three days ending on June 26 reached more than 10,000, a recovery of about 60 percent of pre-epidemic levels, reflecting a strong recovery momentum, Civil Aviation Administration of China said.