According to the China Tourism Academy, due to the impact of COVID-19, it’s estimated that in the first quarter of 2020 and throughout 2020, domestic visits will decrease by 56 and 15.5 percent respectively, and tourism income in 2020 will drop by 1.18 trillion yuan.
In 2020, inbound visits will decrease 50.32 million and tourism income will fall $53.4 billion. Outbound visits are also set to decrease by 27.63 million.
The tourism sector will take a long time to recover as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak's severe impact on tourism-related businesses. The Tourism Research Center, under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, released a green book saying that the novel coronavirus has brought a shock to the sector not felt since before the reform and opening-up policies of the late 1970s.
According to data from the tourism research center, domestic trips in 2020 will fall by 35 percent year-on-year, to only about 3.9 billion. Revenue generated will also see a sharp decline of 40 percent this year, with projected revenues of about 3.9 trillion yuan.
However, the tourism sector that had been battered by COVID-19 began to warm up during the three-day Dragon Boat Festival holiday. Ticket purchases for tourist sites and hotel bookings increased more than fourfold and twofold, respectively, from the three-day Tomb-Sweeping Day holiday in April, according to data from Mafengwo.com, a popular online travel website. The Trip.com Group said that during the holiday period, domestic tour-related searches and demand for flight ticket bookings were around 70 percent of the same period last year.