Visitors doubled on National Day
- Details
- Category: Ningbo News
- Published: Tuesday, 08 October 2013 11:21
This year's National Day holiday is different for tourists with the implementation of the first "tourism law" in China from October 1. It is learned from Ningbo Municipal Tourism Bureau that on the first day of the holiday, the major scenic areas in Ningbo greeted about 739,000 tourists, which doubled that of the same day last year. To be specific, the independent travel becomes people's first choice.
"The 'tourism law' will regulate the tourism industry and lead it back to a correct way.' according to a person in charge from Ningbo Municipal Tourism Bureau. In accordance with the "tourism law", Ningbo has launched the new edition of 2013 tourism contracts, in which the shopping items and self-funded items have been canceled, and the cost has correspondently increased compared with the years before.
With regard to the price fluctuation of the tourism during the National Day holiday, some experts believe that with the absence of the driving force for the cost increase in the current tourism market, tourists should be rational when confronted with the reasonable return of the prices. To adapt to changes in the tourism market, the local travel agencies have been constantly adjusting their competitive strategies. For example, in terms of the travel itinerary, they have increased the free activity time for tourists and given them more rights in choices.
Seen from the booking situation of the tours during the Golden Week holiday, the package tours by major travel agencies saw a slight decline. The biggest increase in tourists appears in some traditionally hot places with more shopping items, such as Yunnan, Hainan Island, Thailand and Hong Kong and Macao. So far, the major destinations for outbound travels have been the charted tours to the Boracay Island, the Jeju Island and Taiwan Island, and the self-guided tours to Hong Kong and Macao are also popular. As to the domestic tours, such nearby cities as Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou and Hangzhou are the major destinations for tourists.
It is reported that the business volume of the greeting service for travel agencies remains almost the same as in last year, and the self-guided tours as the high-speed rail travels and self-driving travels have blossomed. The self-guided tours are less impacted by the implementation of the new "tourism law" as they are only involved in such business with travel agencies as hotel and plane ticket reservations and other special services. For example, during the National Day holiday, the volume of individual services for Zhejiang Flying Tourism Group increases by 40% over the same period last year.
It is worth noting that the newly-launched high-speed rail travels have greatly promoted the explosive development of the short trips during the holiday. As the first golden week after the opening of the Nanjing-Hangzhou-Ningbo high-speed railway, this year’s National Day holiday witnessed the developing of such cities as Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou and Hangzhou into new favors of the tourism market. "It is expected that we will greet over 10.000 visitors, with 70% of them being from package tours, and many of them coming by high-speed rail." said Xu Ting, General Manager of Ningbo Gardens Travels Co. Ltd.
