Despite getting a little tanned, Li Jiaoyang, a 42-year-old arts professional from Beijing, still relishes the leisurely strolls and taste of ripe mulberries amid the tangle of alleys in the ancient city of Kashgar in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

That was her first long-distance travel outside Beijing after the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic broke out. She has been traveling in Xinjiang for about two weeks and plans to stay longer.

The epidemic control measures are still in place, Li said. "But they are reasonable and necessary. Most importantly, you can enjoy some good hotel discounts."

As one of the sectors hit hardest by the epidemic, tourism is making a gradual comeback in China with more and more visitors like Li venturing outdoors. The country is embracing the 10th China Tourism Day, which falls on May 19 each year, with smart efforts to deal with the fallout from the virus.

WARMING UP

As epidemic risks are subdued in China, most of the tourism destinations including museums and parks across the country have reopened. The pent-up demands of millions of tourists and supportive government policies are rebooting the country's tourism market.

The Shanghai Disneyland theme park reopened to visitors with reduced capacity on May 11, the first Disneyland theme park in the world that has resumed operations since the outbreak of COVID-19.

Regular epidemic control measures are taken. Many scenic spots across the country control the number of visitors, while launching an online reservation system to receive visitors at staggered time periods and timely dispersing crowds at key areas. At the Nalati grassland in Xinjiang, a giant head sculpture wears a tailor-made mask to remind people of necessary virus prevention steps.

Global hospitality giant Hilton has reopened all of its hotels with strict anti-epidemic measures on the Chinese mainland. A marked accommodation recovery is seen in short-distance tours of cities' nearby tourism spots during weekends and holidays, according to Qian Jin, area president of Hilton Greater China and Mongolia.

Official data showed that during the May Day holiday, the tourism market basically recovered to 50 percent of the level from the same period last year, with a total of 115 million domestic tourists and revenue of 47.56 billion yuan (about $6.69 billion).

BLAZE ONLINE, LOCAL TRAILS

Many fresh endeavors are putting the travel experience online via social media platforms and livestreaming sites to engage potential tourists, covering everything from cherry blossoms in Wuhan to introductions of the Palace Museum in Beijing.

Online sales promotions of local produce and other tourism products are also gaining popularity. With the pet phase of "Just buy it!", many government officials and entrepreneurs became the brand ambassadors and top salespersons of their tourism products by championing them online.

The head of north Xinjiang's Xinyuan county sold local produce worth nearly 500,000 yuan in a livestreaming sales promotion in early April. James Liang, chairman of China's largest online travel agency (OTA) Trip.com Group, has personally put on different costumes to sell discounted hotel bookings. He had staged nine livestreaming sales since late March, with transactions totaling over 300 million yuan.

To minimize contagion risks, many local governments encourage travel to local or nearby tourism spots, with specific ticket discounts and consumption vouchers offered to local residents to boost the regional tourism market.

Regions such as Inner Mongolia autonomous region even made "love your hometown and explore it" the theme of this year's China Tourism Day. Shanghai will leverage the reach of OTAs and social media platforms to help tourists discover more about the city's tourism resources and products.

SHIFTING TRENDS

The epidemic has pushed the fast-forward button for the tourism industry's evolution, market observers pointed out.

Besides reservation-based travel, self-driving tours will also enjoy a boost out of health concerns. Data from the China Tourism Academy (CTA) showed that some 64 percent of the surveyed travelers took self-driving tours during the May Day holiday. "It can eliminate a lot of contagion risks and give you more freedom during travel," said Li, who drove a car from Beijing with her husband and has been sharing their self-driving tour tips with friends.

Smart travel services are in high demand. Southwest China's tourism hub Yunnan Province has seen a surge in the use of its smart travel app that enables convenient online reservations, introductions, guides and reviews. Xinjiang also developed a similar app that was put into use before the May Day holiday.

Qian expected that the demands for quality travel, family bonding and upgraded consumption - which were suppressed by the epidemic - would become a driving force of consumption during the recovery.

Relying on boosting the number of tickets and trips alone will not work, and technology, culture and service quality will be new growth engines, said CTA's head Dai Bin.

"Revitalizing tourism is not about returning to the past, but adapting to the future," Dai said.