BEIJING, April 11 (Xinhua) -- The three-day holiday for China's Tomb-sweeping Day saw domestic tourists' growing satisfaction with their travel experience, said a report released by the China Tourism Academy (CTA).
A total of 43.25 million domestic trips were made from April 4 to 6, down 61.4 percent year on year, but the tourist satisfaction index hit a record high of 88.8, according to China Tourism News quoting the report.
Most of the tourists traveled with family members to nearby destinations for outdoor experiences and spring scenery as Chinese people are still avoiding mass gatherings to stem the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic, the report said.
As a result, tourists curtailed their travel spending unless it was unavoidable, the report said, noting that tourism revenue went down 80.7 percent from the same period last year to 8.26 billion yuan (about 1.17 billion U.S. dollars).
To prevent the gathering of large crowds, tourist destinations across the country implemented measures including online reservations, health code verification, contactless passenger admission and management of visitor traffic.
Online and offline travel agencies rolled out new service packages and promotions to boost business recovery, the report said.
Hotels had welcomed the first surge of business since the novel coronavirus broke out and the homestay lodging sector experienced a brief recovery, it said.
Statistics and findings of the report were based on data and information provided by local tourism authorities, telecommunication operators, online travel agencies and the CTA laboratory for the tourism economy.
Tomb-sweeping Day, also known as Qingming Festival, is an occasion when Chinese people pay their respects to the departed and go on tours to take in the spring scenery.
