China’s online travel sites expect a surge in domestic tourism amid global shutdown

　　For the full year of 2020, the proportion of domestic tourism in the country’s overall holiday travel market is forecasted to increase to 60% from 47% last year.

　　Qunar and Ctrip, two of China’s biggest online travel service providers, have resumed bookings for travel packages and attraction tickets after a two-month hiatus as the country recorded its lowest number of deaths since the outbreak and no new infections for the second day in a row.

　　Customers can now book presale travel packages for April and May on Qunar’s app and website, a company spokeswoman told the Post. Qunar is now offering 1,000 domestic travel packages for regions including Shanghai, Xinjiang and Sichuan, based on the respective local government guidelines for the resumption of tourism.

　　For the full year of 2020, Analysys is forecasting that the proportion of domestic tourism in the country’s overall holiday travel market will increase to 60 percent from 47 percent last year, with that number dependent on how long international travel restrictions remain in place.

　　Ctrip started selling travel packages and attraction tickets on its app last week as the country accelerated the pace of reopening parks and tourist spots. As of Tuesday, tickets to 1,449 well-known tourist spots across the country could be bought online while 40 percent of China’s top national tourist spots have reopened, according to Ctrip.