People are seen next to restaurants in Houhai Village in Sanya, Hainan Province, China November 26, 2020. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang/File Photo
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BEIJING/SHANGHAI, Aug 7 (Reuters) – When Chinese businesswoman Yang Jing was planning her summer vacation this year in 2021, she chose the southern tropical island of Hainan because of its nearly perfect
The South China Sea island recorded only two symptomatic positive cases of COVID-19 in all of last year. Fast forward to this month, however, and the number of cases has suddenly skyrocketed, prompting a lockdown in the city of Sanya and leaving tens of thousands of tourists like Yang stranded on the island.
Sanya, the island’s main tourist hub, imposed a lockdown on Saturday and restricted transport links to try to curb the outbreak, although some 80,000 visitors were enjoying its beaches in high season. Many are now stuck inside hotels until next Saturday, if not longer. Read more
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Yang, along with her husband and son, stay in a four-star hotel paid for out of pocket. The family is eating noodles every day to avoid spending more on food.
“This is the worst vacation of my life,” Yang, who is in his 40s and lives in southern China’s Jiangxi province, told Reuters on Sunday.
Sanya reported 689 symptomatic and 282 asymptomatic cases between August 1 and 7. Other cities in Hainan province, including Danzhou, Dongfang, Lingshui and Lingao, have reported more than a dozen cases in the same period.
On Saturday, train ticket sales from Sanya were suspended, state broadcaster CCTV reported, citing the national operator, and more than 80% of flights there from Sanya had been cancelled, according to the Variflight data provider.
Hainan has been closed to foreign tourists for the past two and a half years since China, in response to the pandemic, stopped issuing tourist visas and implemented strict quarantine rules.
The Sanya government announced on Saturday that tourists who have canceled their flights will be able to book half-price hotel rooms.
But dozens of tourists complained in WeChat groups on Sunday that their hotels were not enforcing this rule and they still had to pay fees similar to the original prices. Two stranded tourists told Reuters they were in that situation.
“Now we are looking for ways to complain and defend our rights, but so far no official body has contacted us or taken an interest in us,” said one of the tourists, a woman from the province from Jiangsu in eastern China, who only gave his last name as Zhou.
HE WILL NEVER COME BACK
A foreign tourist who lives in China and was on his honeymoon in Sanya, said additional problems for stranded tourists included massive price increases in food delivery fees, hotel meal prices, as well as plane tickets from Hainan. Food supplies at his hotel were also running low, he said, not wanting to be named.
“We just hope it doesn’t become another Shanghai,” the tourist said, referring to the city’s recent draconian two-month lockdown.
The outbreak in Hainan is the latest challenge to China’s zero-Covid policy, after the chaotic lockdown in Shanghai ruined Beijing’s narrative that its handling of the pandemic was superior to that of other countries such as the United States, which has recorded more than one million deaths from COVID.
Domestic visitors have kept the tourism industry alive in Hainan for much of the pandemic, but this sudden lockdown risks driving some tourists away forever.
“In short, we’re never coming back!” said Zhou, who was on vacation with six other family members.
Sanya authorities have said that stranded tourists can leave the island starting next Saturday, provided they have taken five tests for COVID and all have tested negative.
However, Yang said wait times for test results have been long, prompting her to take multiple tests a day.
“We don’t know who to go to, the internet only has positive news about Sanya, like… the Sanya municipal government has properly resettled the 80,000 stranded tourists… as if the whole country thinks we are (us). not victims, but beneficiaries,” he said.
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Report by Martin Quin Pollard and Eduardo Baptista; Editing by Susan Fenton
Our standards: the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.