Popular Chinese short-video platform Douyin released several data rankings for the weeklong Spring Festival holiday on Feb 17, and Xiamen in Fujian province ranked first for the cities most searched on Douyin during the break, followed by Wanning in Hainan province, Shijiazhuang in Hebei province, Beijing, and Shenzhen in Guangdong province.
The local municipal departments released a list of incentives and sales promotions on Feb 8 designed to encourage residents, tourists, migrant workers and expats in Xiamen to stay in the city for the Feb 11-17 period. The measures were reportedly well-received by the people in Xiamen.
Thanks to accommodation subsidies, the occupancy rate of major tourist hotels in the city was 30 percentage points higher than the expected occupancy rate before the measures were rolled out.
High-end boutique hotels, such as the Tefang Portman Seven Stars Bay Hotel and the Andaz Xiamen, were full during the holiday. To top it off, the highest occupancy rates for resort hotels such as the Seaview Resort, Conrad and Waldorf Astoria, exceeded 70 percent during the holiday.
Due to special discounts offered by the Xiamen government to State-owned scenic spots, tourists to A-level scenic spots in the city reached 690,000 during Feb 11-17, with the daily numbers on Feb 14 and 15 alone both topping 150,000. The discounts also boosted consumer spending in hotels, restaurants, cinemas and theme parks.
In addition, the city's 53 commercial cinemas took in 36 million yuan ($5.56 million) on Feb 11-16. The box office on Feb 12 and 13 -- the first and second days of this year's Chinese Lunar New Year -- increased by 47 percent compared with the same period in 2019, setting a new single-day box office record in the metropolis.
China announced and implemented on May 15 a policy allowing visa-free entry of foreign tourist groups aboard cruise ships via all cruise ship ports along the country's coastline.
China and Georgia are set to waive visa requirements for travelers starting May 28.
