Free admission campaign boosts Hubei tourism sector

In the early morning on Monday, visitors swarmed into Jiugong Mountain scenic area in Tongshan county of Hubei province. Zhang Hesong, who came with his family from Wuhan, told China Economic Net that he didn't expect so many tourists on a Monday.

Hubei announced last Friday free admission to all of its A-level tourist attractions to domestic visitors as a token of gratitude for the nation's assistance to the province during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Tourists from low-risk areas in China can visit the sites after they book the free tickets online with their real names, show their health QR codes and have their temperatures checked.

The campaign will last until the end of this year.

The news was well received and bookings to tourist attractions boomed.

As of Monday, 364 A-level tourist attractions in Hubei received 1.67 million bookings, according to the provincial culture and tourism department.

On Aug 9, 25,000 tourists visited the Yellow Crane Tower, or Huanghelou, a landmark area in Wuhan, double the number of the previous day; while about 8,000 tourists visited Wudang Mountains, a World Cultural Heritage site, the highest number in the first half of the year.

The free admission policy, together with previously released plans to award travel agencies across the country for organizing group tours to visit Hubei, is reviving the inter-provincial tourism market.

By Aug 10, 833 travel agencies and 343 starred hotels in Hubei had resumed operation, with resumption rates of 66.43 percent and 90.5 percent, respectively.

The occupancy rate of starred hotels and resort hotels in downtown Wuhan climbed back to 80-90 percent compared with the same period last year. The Westin Wuhan Wuchang saw an occupancy rate of 81 percent and Sheraton Wuhan Hankou Hotel recorded an occupancy rate of 75 percent, according to Chutian Metropolis Daily.

Hubei lowered its emergency level for the pandemic from the second- to the third-highest on June 13.

The province conducted nucleic acid tests on 2.71 million people in July, while 335,000 environmental samples from public areas, frozen food production sites and sales outlets were also tested as of Aug 6, with all results negative.

"All of this proves that Wuhan is a safe place to travel and Hubei people are virus free," Liu Dongru, deputy director of the Hubei Health Commission, said.