Cities roll out measures for resuming tourism

China's leading online travel agency Trip.com Group has started a revival plan involving 1 billion yuan for the industry, with its partners at home and abroad.

Experts believe such tourism support will give the industry a shot in the arm.

"They are undoubtedly very reassuring," Wang Xingbin, a tourism industry expert from the Beijing International Studies University, says, adding that the policies target the most urgent problems in the sector.

Zhou Mingqi from T-identifier Think Tank, which focuses on culture and tourism studies, believes tourism in places like Beijing will rebound soon.

"Beijing's tourism consumption potential remains quite sizable," he says.

Suburban and parent-child travel products are likely to see a recovery first, Zhou adds.

As the situation improves in China, domestic travel is favored by many. A recent survey jointly conducted by China Tourism Academy and Trip.com shows that about 16 percent of the respondents were willing to travel in the five-day Labor Day holiday in May.

Search for flight tickets for the May holiday surged by 76 percent in late March on Beijing-based online travel service provider Qunar. About 14 percent plan a trip during the National Day holiday in October.