The year tourism was saved from the brink

Fly at will

From June, a dozen domestic airline companies, including Hainan Airlines and China Eastern Airlines, launched fly-at-will schemes. Tourists quickly snapped up all the fly-at-will flight tickets. Those who bought China Eastern's "unlimited weekend flights" package for 3,322 yuan redeemed more than 65,000 tickets from June 27 to 28, and nearly 90,000 trips were made using the promotion from July 4 to 5.

Preemptive rights

The Universal Beijing resort launched 10,000 "preemptive right" packages on Oct 21, which sold out in just 131 seconds. Similar packages launched on Oct 23 and 28 were also sold out within seconds. Customers who bought these packages have the right to buy tickets five days before general sale and can choose when to visit the theme park. Overall construction of the park is expected to be finished by the end of the year.

Tibetan icon

Tamdrin, a 20-year-old from Litang county in Garze Tibetan autonomous prefecture, was appointed to promote tourism in Litang after attracting online attention when a video of him smiling broadly in traditional Tibetan costume was uploaded on Douyin, known as TikTok internationally. Tamdrin then posted a short video introducing his white horse, attracting millions of views and followers. The Tamdrin effect caused searches for Litang on Trip.com from Nov 23 to 29 to shoot up 620 percent compared to the previous week.