SHANGHAI’S cultural and tourism industry saw a strong rebound during the 2020 Shanghai Tourism Festival, local authorities announced yesterday.

During the 16-day festival which ended yesterday, the average occupancy rate of city hotels hit 64 percent, growing 8 percent from the same period last month, the Shanghai Administration of Culture and Tourism said.

Sales revenue of the city’s hospitality industry surged 21.6 percent during the period year on year, the first positive growth since the COVID-19 epidemic.

Ticket sales of cultural performances grew 9.6 percent from the same period last year, and it was 4.4 times growth for the animation and games industry.

Tourist attractions in the city received 3.5 million visits during the festival, soaring 28 percent month on month.

The number of tourists soared 39 percent between September 12 and 25 from the same period last year, a 96 percent month-on-month jump, the administration said, citing figures from online travel operator Trip.com.

During the festival, the consumption of tourism, catering, and entertainment in Shanghai hit 31.97 billion yuan (US$4.69 billion), rising 35 percent from the same period last month.

“Under combined efforts from authorities, enterprises, Internet platforms and residents and tourists, the festival proved to be a safe, orderly and splendid event,” Yu Xiufen, director of the administration, told a press conference yesterday.

For the first time in the festival’s 31-year history, sub-venues were set up in three cities of the Yangtze River Delta region — Nantong, Wenzhou and Huangshan — and nearly 100 activities were launched there, attracting more than 8 million people.

Over 20,000 Yangtze River Delta region annual tour passes enabling entries to tourist attractions in Shanghai and 17 cities in the region were sold in 12 days, according to the administration.

In Shanghai, a total of 156 activities were organized for the festival, and nearly 500 tourism routes released, covering a wide range of areas from culture to shopping, architecture to food.

Activities targeting the young were launched with the release of wanghong (online celebrity) visiting places and a combination of online and offline activities, said Yu. “Online tour guides and offline visits have become new models of the city’s cultural and tourism experiences,” she said.

With the opening of the eastern extension of the Nanjing Road Pedestrian Mall during the opening ceremony of the festival, the instantaneous flow on the famed city street surpassed 36,000 visits on the night of September 12, with shopping malls reporting a big increase in sales volume.