Tourists visit an aquarium in Atlantis Hotel in Sanya, south China's Hainan Province, Dec. 30, 2022. Since the second half of 2022, Hainan has issued tourism consumption coupons, held tourism promotion activities, and taken many other measures to stimulate tourism consumption.(Photo: Xinhua)

China has seen an increase in tourism, and demand for inbound travel also grows after the nation optimized COVID-19 response, the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said on Thursday.

Online travel platforms data show there is a significant rise in ticket sales and hotel bookings. Meanwhile, demand for inbound tourism, family visits and business travels is also increasing, said Shu Jueting, MOFCOM spokesperson.

The ministry said China is ready to work with all parties to create better conditions for safe, healthy and orderly exchanges of Chinese travelers and foreign personnel and contribute to the recovery of international tourism and global economy.

In early December 2022, China decided to optimize its COVID-19 response to ease the restrictions on travel and visits to public venues. On January 8, the Civil Aviation Administration of China relaxed restrictions on international passenger flights.

For a long time, China has been one of the world's major inbound and outbound tourist destinations, bringing huge profits for major international tourism markets.

Since 2022, China's travel services have recovered from an ebb in 2021. Total import and export value from travel services reached 758.05 billion yuan ($112.4) in the first 11 months in 2022, up 8.2 percent form 2021. 

The pandemic has dealt a severe blow onto global tourism industry, including China, the ministry said.

In 2021, China's total import and export volume of travel services stood at 789.76 billion yuan, down 22.5 percent year on year and only 40.1 percent of the same period in 2019. It took 14.9 percent of the share in services trade, down from the 36 percent in 2019.

The World Tourism Organization expected global international tourism to have recovered to 65 percent of pre-pandemic levels at the end of 2022.

The chief executive officer of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) is bullish about the sector's recovery from the pandemic and expects exponential growth over the next decade, mainly thanks to a boost from Chinese outbound travel and foreign visitors to China.

"It's wonderful that the world would be able to open its arms and welcome Chinese visitors again," Julia Simpson, president and CEO of WTTC, told Xinhua in a recent video interview.