Wuhan, capital city of Central China's Hubei province, ranks fourth among Chinese cities in terms of tourism, according to the newest edition of China's Tourism Development Report released by the Wuhan Branch of the China Tourism Academy on Dec 15.
The top three cities were Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, Chengdu in Sichuan province and Guangzhou in Guangdong province.
The report was written following in-depth research into the development of tourism in 15 sub-provincial cities across the country. This research focused on three key dimensions of tourism, including actual competitiveness, potential competitiveness and development environment competitiveness.
The report showed that the epidemic has strongly impacted the development environment of China's tourism market. The domestic tourism market has gradually recovered from these severe shocks, but the inbound and outbound tourism market has continued to stagnate.
Hubei has decided to open its key scenic spots to visitors from across the country free of charge starting from Aug 8 to the end of the year, a token of gratitude for the nationwide assistance it received during the COVID-19 outbreak.
As of Dec 13, the province's travel agencies had received a total of 15.28 million tourists, which was 2.38 times the same period last year.
