After experiencing a three-year hit due to COVID-19, China’s homestay industry has shown strong recovery in 2023, thanks to the growth of tourism in rural areas.
According to a recent report by the travel portal Trip.com Group, bookings of rural tourism products in the first three quarters of this year were roughly 2.6 times the number in the same period of 2019, before the COVID-19 outbreak.
In addition, the number of homestays available on the travel platform grew 44 percent, the highest in five years, reaching about 330,000 in 2023, a sign of the market’s good prospects and the confidence in the future development of rural tourism.
Li Minfei, a 35-year-old from Beijing, now prefers homestays to fancy hotels, saying they offer a “memorable” experience and he feels more at home there.
“Homestays are always my first choice when I plan to visit rural destinations. It’s like being a guest in someone’s home, where you can see different interior designs resulting from the…
