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August 4, 2021

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Tourism industry hit again from latest outbreak

By Hu Min and Yu Linxia | 00:00 UTC+8 August 4, 2021 | Print Edition

The new coronavirus outbreak in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, has dealt a fresh blow to the domestic tourism market, which was on track for recovery after an earlier phase of the pandemic.

Shanghai authorities have ordered stronger and stricter measures to curb the spread of COVID-19. Travel agencies and online travel operators have been banned from organizing tours to high- and medium-risk regions or conducting related air ticket and hotel business.

The July-August summer holiday period is traditionally a peak travel time for families and tourists, however, the latest COVID-19 outbreaks have changed things suddenly.

“This year’s summer travel peak, which started around July 10, lasted about 10 days. Cancellation requests have been swarming in, marking the end of the tourism season,” said Zhou Weihong, deputy general manager of Shanghai Spring Tour.

The city of Zhuzhou in central China’s Hunan Province has closed cinemas, entertainment venues and tourist sites after it reported new asymptomatic coronavirus infections on Friday, and the city of Zhangjiajie in the same province also closed all tourist sites.

Zhengzhou in central China’s Henan Province has suspended the operation of all A-level tourist attractions.

Tourism operators have been offering full refunds or free booking changes for travelers to high- and medium-risk COVID-19 regions since late July following a wave of new cases in some domestic cities.

“It is really difficult for the recovery of the tourism industry and its staff,” said a staffer at a big online travel operator who wanted to remain anonymous.

Amy Wang, a Shanghai media staffer, recently canceled a trip to the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region for which she had purchased air tickets and booked most accommodation.

“I planned to travel along Duku Highway and the only travel season is summer. Now, I have to postpone it to next year,” said Wang.

Customer service staff of travel operators are busy handling an avalanche of cancellation orders, working more than 10 hours daily for over a week.

“The upsurge of the virus incurs heavy financial losses,” said a worker at Shanghai-based Trip.com, which has been bombarded by refund claims.

The staffer said bookings are almost closed for the next two months to protect tourists’ safety and the actual date of resumption is yet to be determined.

Another staffer at Haitian Travel Agency said they were busy, but not with bookings.

“We are busy handling refund requests, and about 30,000 to 50,000 such requests have been made daily to our company since the Nanjing outbreak,” she said.

“Most schools require students not to make inter-provincial trips, and almost all orders involving children have been canceled,” said a staffer with online travel operator Tuniu.

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