China’s tourism industry is banking on the upcoming May holiday to revive business dampened by COVID-19, as the Ministry of Transport expects some 265 million domestic travelers, which would be a new record high for that period, 36Kr reported.
Homestay rental platform Xiaozhu, “little piggy” in Chinese, said that the number of bookings for the five-day nationwide vacation is already 180% higher than in the same period in 2019. During the three-day national break in early April, there were over six times more reservations than last year.
The homestay market was growing steadily until the pandemic brought it to a screeching halt. “The question was no longer how much money they can make, but whether they can make any money at all, or even if they would lose a lot of money,” an industry insider told local news media Chuangye Zuiqianxian.
To survive, companies and hosts alike utilized livestreaming as well as social media to sell packaged offerings and shifted strategies to focus on long-term rentals.
Now, China is ready to get back on track, as more than 200 million people, around 14% of its total population, have received their vaccine shots as of last Wednesday, according to the latest government announcements.
This article is part of KrASIA’s “Key Stat” series, where KrASIA picks and presents the most significant figures of the day’s technology and business world.