The number of Chinese tourists surged during the May Day holiday.

According to data from internet company Baidu Inc., Wuhan led the way in terms of travel numbers, with nearly 50% of people traveling out of the city on May 1st.

Leading the travel trend are people from Wuhan, Beijing, Dalian, Tianjin, and Jinan, as China has eased travel restrictions and relaxed quarantine rules due to the Covid-19 epidemic being brought under control in the country.

Labor Day is one of China's annual peak tourist seasons. According to the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism, on May 1st alone, these locations welcomed over 23 million domestic tourists. Hundreds of attractions reopened, including the Forbidden City in Beijing. At West Lake in eastern Hangzhou, the most popular tourist destination during the holiday, according to Baidu statistics, 183,700 visitors came on May 1st.

China's Ministry of Transport forecasts that approximately 23.36 million tourists will travel each day during this holiday period, higher than the 19.9 million who traveled during the Qingming Festival a month ago (April 4-6, 2020). While this figure is significantly lower than the 67.13 million daily tourists in 2019, it is still enough to cause concern among many experts.

This year, many people also decided to travel closer to home, and many avoided Heilongjiang province, which is experiencing several small outbreaks. Hubei province, where the epidemic first appeared in China, was also not a popular destination. The Hubei Provincial Tourism Bureau reported that the province's 22 open tourist sites received only 109,664 visitors on May 1st, a decrease of 87% compared to last year, and tourism revenue also fell by 95% to 6.79 million yuan (approximately $961,729).

Currently, China is still limiting the number of tourists to tourist destinations to a maximum of 30% of their capacity to ensure compliance with social distancing rules.

My Tong