With the travel industry desperate for good news, talk of China opening up again brings hope to many.
Nothing can be taken as certain, however, with talk in the next breath of concerns around secondary infections of the virus or contamination from travelers or citizens arriving in the country from other areas.
Trying to make sense out of all this is challenging but organizations tracking travel search activity are well-placed to discern any trends.
Travel marketing specialist Sojern says in mainland China it sees a huge uptick in flight searches, an increase in hotel searches and has heard anecdotally that consumers are now calling hotels with queries.
However, there are “always more layers to the story," the company cautions, saying that often the flight searches are for smaller cities and believes it could be residents returning home as restrictions are lifted.
There have also been positive signs in Singapore, in terms of the volume of hotel searches, but it is for domestic bookings.
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