Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - According to official data released on Friday, China's domestic tourist earnings in the first half o...
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| Image: Reuters |
Berita 24 English - According to official data released on Friday, China's domestic tourist earnings in the first half of 2022 decreased 28.2 percent from a year earlier as COVID lockdowns affected the services sector, which makes up over 60% of the country's economy and accounts for half of all jobs in cities.
According to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Chinese tourists made a total of 1.46 billion domestic visits between January and June, which is a 22.2 percent decrease from the prior year.
Travel by tourists decreased by a bigger 26.2 percent in the second quarter as a result of the closure of Shanghai's financial district and mobility restrictions in nearby towns.
According to Ma Yiliang, a statistician at the China Tourism Academy, "Affected by COVID, individuals are increasingly preferring fragmented trip time, shorter journey distance, and lower travel expense." She also noted that the demand for long-distance travel has decreased dramatically.
Despite the fact that many COVID restrictions have already been eased and activity resumed in June, analysts do not anticipate a swift economic recovery for the second-largest economy in the world this year as Beijing adheres to its zero-COVID policy.
Particularly, the implementation of additional lockdowns in some places and the discovery of a virus version that is extremely contagious have increased uncertainty among businesses and customers.
According to official figures released on Friday, China's gross domestic product increased by a pitiful 0.4 percent from a year earlier in the second quarter.
