China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism scrapped eight epidemic prevention and control work guidelines from Wednesday, downgrading the COVID management level for the industry ahead of the Spring Festival holidays to “ensure normal development of cultural and tourism activities and the orderly flow of people.”
The removal of the eight guidelines, covering those for tourism agencies, theatres and libraries, is set to pave the way for a full recovery of the domestic tourism industry, industry analysts said.
The adjustment came as China’s COVID-19 controls entered a new stage as the virulence of the virus has weakened, and the majority of the population has been inoculated with COVID-19 vaccines, the ministry said in a statement published on its official website on Wednesday.
Local cultural and tourism administrative departments have been asked to formulate industry epidemic prevention and control measures after the adjustment, to ensure a balance in epidemic prevention and control, normal development in cultural and tourism activities and an orderly flow of personnel, the statement said.
According to a report from Fliggy, Alibaba’s travel-services platform, the number of travel bookings for the Spring Festival in 2023 has increased by more than 60% year-on-year and the number of outbound travel bookings rose to the highest level in the past three years.
Read original article
