The hypothetical ‘Great Wall’ between China and the rest of the world may soon come tumbling down. On Wednesday, December 7, China Central Television (CCTV) dropped a bombshell of an announcement: The Chinese government had confirmed 10 new measures pertaining to the Covid-19 pandemic.
For anyone who has been living under the shadow of the country’s strict zero-Covid policy, reading the said list is enough to make one emotional.
From scrapping the need to present QR codes in public spaces to allowing home quarantine instead of being corralled into makeshift hospitals, the new guidelines feel like Christmas come early — especially for those in China with cabin fever.
As a matter of fact, a Chinese multinational online travel company has seen an unprecedented amount of traffic on its website since the official news broke.
According to an inside source at Trip.com Group, on the very day that the ‘10 New Measures’ bulletin broke, searches for domestic routes on the company’s platforms increased by 74% compared to the previous week. In fact, the travel company detected even more traffic on that day than during the same period in 2019, before Covid-19 was even ‘a thing.’
Interestingly, since November 30 and even before CCTV’s broadcast, Trip.com Group observed a sustained interest in international routes. However, it wasn’t until the news dropped that searches in this category reached their peak in the past month (between November 13 to December 12).
Additionally, Chinese netizens have been doing their homework on internal flights scheduled for the upcoming Spring Festival (or Chinese New Year) holiday from January 21-27, 2023 — searches during the week of the announcement increased by a whopping 172% compared to the prior week.
Meanwhile, inquiries about inbound and outbound international flights respectively rose by 113% and 95%, and bookings increased by 60% and 83%. We’re on the same page… Take our money, and let’s hit the road!
Images via Depositphotos
