The SARS-CoV-2 virus was first detected in Wuhan in December 2019, and the city was the first in the world to go into lockdown, decimating its tourism industry and wider economy.

Before the outbreak, the city was a popular destination for domestic tourists, especially during the annual five-day May Day holiday. In 2019 more than 316 million Chinese tourists visited the capital of Hubei province, generating CNY357 billion, or A$75 billion in revenue, according to the Wuhan Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism.

Instead of the bumper 2020 the city’s tourism industry was expecting, Wuhan became a ghost town, its citizens locked away for 76 days and tourist attractions and schools shut for even longer.

The lockdown, the world’s first, ended on April 8, less than a month before the May Day holiday, and when the holiday rolled around only 663,100 tourists ventured to Wuhan, in stark contrast to the 93.3 million domestic tourists who visited the city during the May Day holidays the previous year.

By May 2021, tourism was bouncing back, with crowds flocking to the city’s most well-known tourist attraction, Huanghe Lou, the Yellow Crane Tower. First built in 223AD as a military watchtower and demolished and rebuilt numerous times over the centuries, the tower is a beautiful structure with five curved roofs.

A team of journalists from The Global Citizen visited Wuhan in September 2021 to see how the city’s tourism industry was faring. They saw many visitors with 3D ice creams shaped like the Yellow Crane Tower. Available in chocolate and yellow peach flavours, the ice creams sell for CNY15, or A$3 each, and have become a social media sensation.

According to local media reports, more than 15,000 Yellow Crane Tower ice creams were sold in a single day during the 2021 May Day holiday.

The 3D ice cream maker, Zhijian Weidao, sells ice creams in the shape of 13 different tourist attractions from around China, including the Boju Ge, an artifact on display at the Capital Provincial History Museum in Beijing.

How did the pandemic affect tourism?

Qiong Gao, a tour guide who works for the Yellow Crane Tower, said the lockdown severely affected tourism in the city.

Ms Gao, whose job is to inform visitors about the rich history of the tower and its surroundings, said promotional strategies put in place by tourism authorities appeared to be working, with plenty of visitors at the attraction. At the time of writing, tickets to the Yellow Crane Tower were half price, at CNY35 or A$7.70, and visitors also received a free drink with every ticket.

Qiang Wang has been selling fruit and ice cream from his tiny stall inside the Yellow Crane Tower grounds for three years. The last year has been tough, with the tourist attraction closed for three months in 2020.

“We have had almost no business,” Mr Wang told The Global Citizen. “Life is difficult.”

Coffee shop owner Sai Yin, who had just started trading from a historic building near the Wuhan Art Museum on the Jianghan Road tourist strip, said he was confident about the future of Wuhan’s tourist industry. Mr Yin said he believed the consumption vouchers issued by the government to stimulate spending in the city would work well.

In 2021 the Wuhan government issued CNY500 million, or A$110 million, in consumption vouchers that could be used at tourist attractions, supermarkets and restaurants via mobile apps.

Why visit Wuhan?

With no COVID cases at the time of writing (September 2021) and an almost fully-vaccinated population, Wuhan was a popular destination for domestic tourists because it was considered “safe”.

University student Zhilun Ji from Inner Mongolia was also at the Yellow Crane Tower the day The Global Citizen’s team visited. With 53 universities, Wuhan is said to host the world’s biggest population of students. Mr Ji and his friends also planned to visit several other Wuhan tourist attractions that day.

“Wuhan has gone through a lot already and has loads of experience in dealing with the virus,” Mr Ji said. “It was the first place to detect the virus. Currently, it is one of the safest cities in China.”

Guangdong Yu from Guangdong province in southeastern China was among the tourists at Yellow Crane Tower. Mr Yu hasn’t had a vacation since the pandemic broke out and he said he chose to take his first post-pandemic trip to Wuhan.

“Wuhan is a very famous and an ancient capital of our country,” he said. “It is one of the starting points of the new era. It was where the Wuchang uprising took place and also where the August 7th Meeting of the Communist Party of China was held and the Communist Party’s history turned.”

On the ground floor of the Yellow Crane Tower, visitors write wishes on small pieces of paper and stick them to the wall. They wish for health and happiness for their friends and family.

“May the country be prosperous and the people at peace,” one note reads. “A speedy end to the COVID 19 pandemic. Happiness for the whole family.”

The future of tourism in Wuhan

There is no doubt the pandemic has changed tourism in the historic city of Wuhan. Tourism authorities are keen to see domestic and international tourist numbers back to pre-pandemic levels.

Bin Dai, director of the national Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s data centre, said tourist satisfaction surveys across 60 Chinese cities found Wuhan to be among the top cities people wanted to visit after the pandemic, according to a Changjiang Daily report in October 2021.

Mr Dai told the newspaper Wuhan could attract even more tourists with new products and services. He said he expected many new ideas would come out of the first China (Wuhan) Culture and Tourism Expo held at the end of 2021.

Mr Yu from Guangdong province, who our team met at the Yellow Crane Tower on the first day of his holiday, was already planning a return visit to Wuhan.