With less than 10 days away from the Dragon Boat Festival, the information released by key tourism enterprises shows the domestic tourism market will continue to recover during the festival and residents' desire to travel remains strong. According to the prediction data of the 2021 Dragon Boat Festival released by C-trip on June 2, tourists prefer not to travel far and 60 percent of tourists will travel within provinces during the festival this year.

Despite recent sporadic outbreaks of COVID-19 in very few domestic places, China has the epidemic well under control and consumers remain enthusiastic about travel, showing the domestic tourism market will continue to recover during the Dragon Boat Festival, said Fang Zeqian, an industry analyst at C-trip Research Institute. According to registration data, tourists are expected to hit 100 million during the festival this year, restoring to the level in the same period of 2019.

Short & medium-distance travel will dominate during the three-day festival. According to data released by C-trip, nearly 50 percent of tourists signed up for tours within a radius of 300 kilometers and over 60 percent chose to travel within provinces. Cities like Wuhan, Yichang, Xiangyang and Jingzhou are all key tourist destinations in Hubei.

According to C-trip's big data statistics, the top five scenic spots in Central China during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday are Tianmen Mountain National Forest Park, Orange Island, Wuhan Haichang Polar Ocean Park, Zhangjiajie National Forest Park and Furong Town. Not only will Wuhan Haichang Polar Ocean Park be a key attraction, scenic spots like Wuhan's Happy Valley, Jingzhou Fantawild, Xiangyang's Tang City and Yichang's Tribe of the Three Gorges will attract flocks of tourists.

Apart from popular scenic spots around, "hotel holiday" will be another way of travel during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday this year. Many tourists are unwilling to tour scenic spots after the COVID-19 outbreak, and instead they will choose holiday hotels for two or three-day travel. "Hotel holiday" integrating board, lodging and travel enjoys great popularity, said a head of C-trip. C-trip's data show hotel reservations during the festival this year are up approximately 30 percent from the same period of 2019.