China’s Hainan has received over 4.5 million tourists during the week of the lunar New Year holidays. According to the Hainan Daily, the local hospitality industry’s revenue exceeded RMB 5.8 billion (about USD 900 million) from February 11 to 17.
According to the latest data, from 11 to 16 February, the share of reservations in Sanya’s hotels, the main resort city of the province, averaged 61%. At the same time, the occupancy rate of high-end hotels in Haitangwan Bay exceeded 72%, and in Yalongwan Bay – 74%. A large number of guests of the province, the newspaper noted, came here for outdoor activities: they were diving, surfing, hiking in tropical forests, as well as trips on boats and yachts.
In addition to traditional resorts such as Sanya and Wanning, new destinations were also in demand among tourists. For example, the recently opened Baihualing Nature Reserve, located in the central mountainous part of the island, received about 80,000 visitors during the “golden week”.
The Chinese government plans to turn Hainan into an “international center for tourism and consumption” by 2025. The Chinese island is often referred to as “Eastern Hawaii”: natural landscapes, tropical forests, a developed hotel chain combined with beaches and a coastline stretching along more than 1,900 kilometers attract guests from the most remote parts of the world.