China tourists are expected to make more than three billion domestic trips this year.
The Chinese Tourism Academy predicts about 3.4 billion trips within the country, which is about 43% down on last year.
Tourism related spending is also expected to decline by half, it says.
Most of the country has eased most or all travel restrictions, although the industry still hasn’t fully recovered.
About 90% of hotels have reopened but major tourist attractions are still limiting capacity to 30-50%.
"The psychological effect of the virus is still lingering, so the traditional long-distance tour group has not recovered much. But family-oriented attraction complexes that include theme parks and hotels, and are located around big city clusters, have matched or surpassed the level in the same period last year," Jiang Hong, chairman of China Travel International Investment Hong Kong, told the South China Morning Post.
According to recent data from ForwardKeys, the domestic air market has almost completed recovered, fuelled by deep discounting on tickets, including unlimited ‘all you can fly’ offers.
Written by Ray Montgomery, Asia Pacific editor
