Snap Covid lockdowns turn summer holidays into nightmare for tens of thousands of Chinese tourists
- Visitors to some of the country’s most popular destinations have found themselves stranded at short notice – often because of a small handful of cases
- The authorities had eased travel restrictions this year in the hope of boosting the tourist sector after zero-Covid continued to take its toll on the economy
As a result, tourists packed holiday hotspots, and streets and shops were once again bustling with visitors but then a series of outbreaks linked to the highly transmissible Omicron variant flared up across the country.
But unlike previous years, local authorities are now introducing snap lockdowns after recording just a handful of cases after similar measures were credited with stopping an outbreak in Shenzhen in March.
These lockdowns usually last for five to seven days, but can stretch into weeks or even months – leaving travellers unsure when or how they can get home.
Cissy Zhu, 32, a primary schoolteacher from Beijing, said she feared she would lose her job after becoming one of the tens of thousands of travellers trapped on Hainan after a lockdown was imposed on the tropical island with little notice on August 6.