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(Yicai Global) April 30 -- Beijing lowered its public health emergency response level from first to second and lifted the 14-day home quarantine on those coming on business trips or returning from low-risk parts of China, the city government announced yesterday, spiking online travel platforms' traffic soon after.
Searches for air departures surged five-fold in 30 minutes from average earlier hourly searches yesterday, according to trip booking website LY.Com.
Reservations for air tickets out of the Chinese capital jumped 15 times in one half hour after the release from the previous period, while searches for vacations, hotels and other travel products also climbed three times, travel portal Qunar.Com reported
Purchases of air tickets entering and leaving Beijing on Alibaba Group Holding's Fliggy travel website rose more than five times within one hour on the news from the same period on April 28, and sales of train tickets entering and leaving the city rose fourfold.
Air fares from Beijing to popular domestic destinations such as Hangzhou, Kunming, Chengdu, Chongqing and Shanghai were around CNY500 (USD71) after a discount of between 92 percent to 80 percent before the release, and Beijingers with travel plans are thus advised to buy tickets as soon as possible because prices are soaring.
Tourists have also flooded to online travel platforms to search for travel information in Beijing and surrounding areas.
Searches for recommended self-drive tours to Beijing during the May Day holiday from May 1 to 5 rose almost threefold on the travel app Mafengwo, searches for the May Day holiday tourist guides climbed almost fourfold, searches for scenic spots surrounding metropolis surged nearly three times, and those for homestay hotels jumped 86 percent yesterday afternoon, data show.
Editor: Ben Armour