Air ticket, travel reservations skyrocket as Beijing lowers emergency response level

Air ticket and travel reservations have risen significantly after an official announced that Beijing will lower its emergency response to the novel coronavirus epidemic from the top level to the second level starting April 30.

After the response level is downgraded, people from low-risk regions of China will not need to be quarantined for 14 days at home upon arriving in Beijing. Those who are undergoing concentrated or at-home observation need not continue.

Within half an hour of the announcement, searches for air tickets climbed quickly on qunar.com, a leading online travel service operator in China. Statistics from the platform showed that bookings for air tickets departing from Beijing rose 15 times, while searches for holiday products and hotels were up three times.

Booking data from Trip.com Group also showed that on Wednesday, searches and reservations for Beijing tours, car renting and scenic area tickets in Beijing during the May Day holiday reached a peak in April.

The reservations are mainly for the May Day holiday, and most tourists will travel in pairs, according to Trip.com Group. Most of the bookings were two-day or three-day travel products.

Air routes with the biggest reservations are those linking Beijing and the cities of Chengdu, Chongqing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Changsha. High-end hotels are popular with almost half of those in Beijing who made the reservations.