East China’s Jiangsu province has seen a slight decline in the demand for train tickets during the upcoming spring festival travel rush as companies in the province are offering incentives for their non-local employees to stay put for the holiday for the sake of avoiding virus infection.
Many migrant workers are responding to the government calls for migrant workers to refrain from long-distance travel home.
Railway authorities are reporting adequate supply of train tickets to hot destinations such as Chengdu, Wuhan, Nanchang, Shenyang and Changchun.
China's top economic planner said on Jan 15 that the prevention and control of COVID-19 will be the top priority in the upcoming Spring Festival travel rush.
Given a nearly 60-percent drop year-on-year in train ticket bookings, China State Railway Group Co Ltd has lowered its railway trip forecast to 296 million for the travel rush, said Li Wenxin, deputy general manager of the national railway operator.
The operator predicted that China would see 407 million railway passenger trips during the travel rush.
Favorable policies have been rolled out to encourage employees to stay in the city they work in for the Spring Festival holiday, in a bid to avoid the travel rush and prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Some cities are also encouraging employees to continue working through the holiday from Feb 11 to 17 and avoid traveling to their hometowns to help their enterprises meet production targets.
The incentives include overtime pay and subsidies for the remaining employees who work during the holiday, free food and accommodation, free tickets to local scenic spots, and holidays arranged for another time of year.
Seven central government departments have encouraged migrant workers to stay in the cities where they are working during Spring Festival and will launch an operation to guarantee workers' welfare and enterprises' production.
