Archive for ‘stimulate’

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30/04/2020

Travel bookings surge up to 1,500 per cent on some sites after Beijing downgrades emergency alert level

  • Outbound flights from Beijing were 15 times higher on one travel site within half an hour of Beijing relaxing quarantine requirements on the city
  • The rebound in bookings spells some hope for online travel providers in China as the country emerges from a pandemic which saw widespread travel restrictions
Passengers arrive from a domestic flight at Beijing Capital Airport on March 27, 2020. Photo: AFP
Passengers arrive from a domestic flight at Beijing Capital Airport on March 27, 2020. Photo: AFP
Within an hour of Beijing downgrading its emergency response level, relaxing quarantine requirements for some arrivals to the Chinese capital city, travel bookings on some sites surged up to 15 times.
Thirty minutes after the announcement on Wednesday, bookings for outbound flights from Beijing were 15 times higher than before the announcement on Qunar, one of the biggest online travel service providers in China. Searches for travel packages and hotel bookings on the platform also increased three-fold, according to a Qunar report.
On Alibaba Group Holding‘s Fliggy travel platform, bookings for flight and trains heading in and out of Beijing increased 500 per cent and 300 per cent respectively one hour after the announcement, compared to the same time a day ago, according to a Fliggy report. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
Bookings for flight and train tickets in Beijing for the upcoming Labour Day long weekend also increased more than 300 per cent and 160 per cent respectively on Chinese group buying site Meituan Dianping on Wednesday after the announcement compared to the day before, while searches for the attractions in the Beijing area on the platform increased almost three times from a week ago, according to Meituan.
“The surge in searches for travel in Beijing was because the lockdown measures in the city were the strictest in the country after work resumed,” said Jiang Xinwei, senior analyst with Analysys. “Consumption among residents was suppressed [during the lockdowns], so there is now a rebound in bookings.”
China’s online travel sites prepare for surge in domestic tourism
21 Mar 2020

The rebound in bookings spells some hope for online travel providers in China as the country gradually emerges from a pandemic which the Chinese government responded to by implementing strict quarantine measures, shutting down tourist attractions and suspending group tours.

Beijing-based consultancy Analysys estimates that China’s national tourism economy lost at least 10 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion) a day on average during the outbreak, with travel service providers like Qunar and Ctrip overloaded with millions of booking changes as well as cancellation and refund requests.
The relaxation of travel restrictions in and out of Beijing also comes ahead of a

five-day break dubbed the “mini golden week”

, which starts on Friday and is the first extended public holiday after Lunar New Year in late January.

In November, the Chinese government lengthened the holiday from the original three days to five to stimulate consumption and encourage travelling amid a slowing economy weighed down by the US-China trade war.

Some cities, such as Huzhou in eastern China’s Zhejiang province and Kunming in southwestern province Yunnan, have issued travel vouchers to stimulate consumption for the tourist industry, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Ctrip estimated that there would be more than 86 million domestic tourists during the long weekend – more than double the number of travellers seen during the Ching Ming Festival in April, which recorded 43 million tourists, according to the China Tourism Academy.

However, Jiang said the rebound this week does not mean the Chinese travel industry is out of the red. “The travel industry will recover partially during the public holiday, but this will not be more than 60 per cent [of levels before the pandemic],” he said. “The government needs to do more to signal that travelling is safe and encourage residents to do so.”

Source: SCMP

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06/04/2020

China Focus: Government offers bailout, voucher programs to stimulate restaurant industry

SHENYANG, April 5 (Xinhua) — Huo Chunlei, who runs a hotpot restaurant in Shenyang, capital of northeast China’s Liaoning Province, said he did not lay off any of his staff, although the restaurant is having difficulties for reopening after two months of closure in China’s nationwide measures of coronavirus control.

A few weeks after Chinese provincial-regions with low risk of the novel coronavirus gradually resumed work and production, shops and eateries have reopened, and roads become bustling again, as hundreds of millions of people confined at home for weeks in compliance with epidemic prevention rules get back to a normal life.

Huo’s restaurant has been in operation for a week. Only half of the tables are filled at dinnertime. The revenue is barely enough to cover the expenses of the house rent and employee wages, he said.

However, he said his business is able to survive because of the government’s bailout policies. For example, the approval of deferred payment of social insurance premiums for his employees alone can save him 80,000 yuan (about 11,250 U.S. dollars) a month.

“The staff are willing to stay, as we are all confident in tiding over the difficulties together,” he said.

The local governments at all levels have rolled out a slew of measures to shore up the catering business, including cutting taxes, reducing house rent as well as water and electricity fees.

The governments in Liaoning, Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces have issued coupons with a value ranging from 10 million yuan to 100 million yuan to encourage people to spend on dining out.

Before the production resumption, there were some consumer councils’ surveys showing that consumers had suppressed consumption desire for dining out and shopping as well as going to movie theaters, gymnasiums and tourist spots after the epidemic crisis ends.

“The so-called retaliatory consumption has not yet appeared in the catering industry, as people are still wary about the infection risk, but there will be a gradual recovery growth,” said Chen Heng, executive director of Hainan Hotel and Catering Industry Association in the southernmost Chinese province of Hainan.

“Before reopening, we increased the distances between tables, but with reduced tables, there are still many empty tables at dinner time. My restaurant used to have all seats full and even queues,” said Huo.

Like Huo, Lin Lunheng, founder of the Fuzhou Super Dinner Co. Ltd. in southeast China’s Fujian Province, is also worried about business.

“Although the chain stores have reopened, revenues have decreased by 70 percent compared with that before the epidemic. This is a big blow to restaurants,” said Lin.

The Italian style chain restaurant has offered e-coupons to draw customers.

As the spring weather is getting more and more pleasant, consumers’ desire for dining out and travel is growing. According to a survey report jointly released by the China Travel Academy and Trip.com Group on March 19, Chinese are longing for tours across the country, with Yunnan, Hainan and Shanghai among the top destinations.

Source: Xinhua

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