BLAZE ONLINE, LOCAL TRAILS

Many fresh endeavors are putting the travel experience online via social media platforms and livestreaming sites to engage potential tourists, covering everything from cherry blossoms in Wuhan to introductions of the Palace Museum in Beijing.

Online sales promotions of local produce and other tourism products are also gaining popularity. With the pet phase of "Just buy it!", many government officials and entrepreneurs became the brand ambassadors and top salespersons of their tourism products by championing them online.

The head of north Xinjiang's Xinyuan county sold local produce worth nearly 500,000 yuan in a livestreaming sales promotion in early April. James Liang, chairman of China's largest online travel agency (OTA) Trip.com Group, has personally put on different costumes to sell discounted hotel bookings. He had staged nine livestreaming sales since late March, with transactions totaling over 300 million yuan.

To minimize contagion risks, many local governments encourage travel to local or nearby tourism spots, with specific ticket discounts and consumption vouchers offered to local residents to boost the regional tourism market.

Regions such as Inner Mongolia autonomous region even made "love your hometown and explore it" the theme of this year's China Tourism Day. Shanghai will leverage the reach of OTAs and social media platforms to help tourists discover more about the city's tourism resources and products.

SHIFTING TRENDS

The epidemic has pushed the fast-forward button for the tourism industry's evolution, market observers pointed out.

Besides reservation-based travel, self-driving tours will also enjoy a boost out of health concerns. Data from the China Tourism Academy (CTA) showed that some 64 percent of the surveyed travelers took self-driving tours during the May Day holiday. "It can eliminate a lot of contagion risks and give you more freedom during travel," said Li, who drove a car from Beijing with her husband and has been sharing their self-driving tour tips with friends.

Smart travel services are in high demand. Southwest China's tourism hub Yunnan Province has seen a surge in the use of its smart travel app that enables convenient online reservations, introductions, guides and reviews. Xinjiang also developed a similar app that was put into use before the May Day holiday.

Qian expected that the demands for quality travel, family bonding and upgraded consumption - which were suppressed by the epidemic - would become a driving force of consumption during the recovery.

Relying on boosting the number of tickets and trips alone will not work, and technology, culture and service quality will be new growth engines, said CTA's head Dai Bin.

"Revitalizing tourism is not about returning to the past, but adapting to the future," Dai said.

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