Tourists walk under the full bloomed cherry blossom trees at Jimingsi Road on March 22, 2016 in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province of China.
VCG
China’s domestic travel industry is poised to resume normal activity before the summer holiday season, according to the CEO of the country’s largest travel site Trip.com.
Jane Sun told CNBC she was hopeful her company could forge the path to recovery for one of the industries hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
“We are confident, with the government’s strong control measures, we’ll be able to lead the recovery within China,” Sun told “Street Signs” on Wednesday.
Sun’s comments come as Trip.com’s chairman, James Liang, commences a tour promoting domestic travel to coincide with the scaling back of containment measures which have seen some Chinese citizens confined to their homes for months.
“We saw the climb for the travel volume to be up within China, so we’re confident that within a couple of months domestic travel in China will be recovered,” Sun continued.
Trip.com, which owns Skyscanner, was one of the travel companies first hit by the outbreak, which originated in Wuhan, China. In January, the company pledged to pay for health care for infected customers and, in March, revealed senior leadership would cut their salaries to stem company losses.
However, Sun said the business is now on course to resume activities. After kick-starting domestic travel in China, she said the next step is to work with other Asian countries thought to have a handle on the virus, such a Singapore, Japan and Korea, to discuss easing present travel restrictions.
“I think it will be very good for the industry, very good for the economy,” she said. “And also, as long as Asia stands strong, Asia will be able to (be) united as one team and extend our help to the rest of the world.”