People in Beijing shop for flowers in a market on January 5, 2023. The flower market is booming as the upcoming Spring Festival holidays approach. China's consumption market is seeing a rapid recovery , and a high enthusiasm for consumption is expected. Photo: cnsphoto

China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism scrapped eight epidemic prevention and control work guidelines from Wednesday, downgrading the COVID management level for the industry ahead of the Spring Festival holidays to "ensure normal development of cultural and tourism activities and the orderly flow of people." 

The removal of the eight guidelines, covering those for tourism agencies, theatres and libraries, is set to pave the way for a full recovery of the domestic tourism industry, industry analysts said.

The adjustment came as China's COVID-19 controls entered a new stage as the virulence of the virus has weakened, and the majority of the population has been inoculated with COVID-19 vaccines, the ministry said in a statement published on its official website on Wednesday.

Local cultural and tourism administrative departments have been asked to formulate industry epidemic prevention and control measures after the adjustment, to ensure a balance in epidemic prevention and control, normal development in cultural and tourism activities and an orderly flow of personnel, the statement said.

According to a report from Fliggy, Alibaba's travel-services platform, the number of travel bookings for the Spring Festival in 2023 has increased by more than 60 percent year-on-year and the number of outbound travel bookings rose to the highest level in the past three years. 

China's 40-day Chunyun, or Spring Festival travel rush, the world's largest human migration, is expected to see about 2.09 billion passenger trips made this year, up 99.5 percent from the 2022 level, as passenger volume is rapidly scaled up following the country's optimized epidemic response and amid the release of pent-up demand for travel, an official with China's Ministry of Transport (MOT) said on January 6.

Chunyun in 2023 will last 40 days from January 7 until February 15.

The passenger volume on airlines, railways and roads is set to reach 70.3 percent of the pre-epidemic level in 2019.