The cherry blossom season in Hubei has arrived as scheduled, attracting tourists from all over the world to come and check in. In recent days, the popularity of inbound flower viewing tours in the province has continued to rise. Zheng Wuhai from Malaysia took a photo with his family under the cherry blossom tree. They also checked in at well-known attractions such as the Yellow Crane Tower, hoping to have the opportunity to come back again. On March 18th, tourists enjoyed cherry blossoms at the East Lake Cherry Blossom Garden in Wuhan. According to the statistics of Wuhan Entry Exit Border Checkpoint, Zhang Chang, a reporter from China News Service, as of March 17, there were 11600 foreigners entering and leaving Wuhan Tianhe Airport, an increase of 23.83% over the same period in 2024, mainly from South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, the United States and Japan. The main purpose of tourists entering the country is sightseeing tourism, accounting for over 60%. Li Zhi, General Manager of Hubei International Travel Agency, has been extremely busy recently. He introduced that there have been over 100 in-depth flower viewing and sightseeing inbound tourist groups that have been received and booked, and the total number of people received has increased by 15% compared to the same period in 2024. Most foreign tourists come for cherry blossoms, "said Li Zhi. The reporter learned from the Hubei Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism that in recent days, the province has received over 20 inbound flower viewing tour groups every day. In the coming week, we will also receive flower viewing groups composed of tourists from countries such as the United States, Russia, and Spain. In addition, groups such as the Hubei Hong Kong special train tour along the high-speed rail, Hong Kong charter flight flower viewing+intangible cultural heritage research and study tour will also arrive one after another. In March, Wuhan welcomed the cherry blossom season, attracting tourists from home and abroad to watch. Zheng Ziyan's photos of Wuhan, Xiangyang, Yichang, Enshi, Jingmen and other places have become popular destinations for tourists from home and abroad. According to Ctrip data, the search volume of hotels in Hubei province increased by 35% month on month and the booking volume increased by nearly 10% month on month in the past week since March 10th. Regarding this, Deng Aimin, Dean of the Tourism Research Institute at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, stated that flowers bring "traffic" to cities, but the development of cultural tourism still needs to cultivate "internal strength" and make efforts in improving services, expanding consumption scenarios, and transforming "traffic" into "retention". Recently, a cherry blossom powder product called "Garlic Bird" (a homophone of "forget" in Wuhan dialect) has gained numerous followers in the cultural and creative industry. Deng Aimin suggested that Hubei should carry out full time domain product innovation to break through the time and space limitations of the flower viewing economy. By extending the "Sakura+" industry chain, an all-weather consumption scenario can be formed. To enhance the tourist experience, Hubei has taken a series of measures to promote payment facilitation and strengthen the software and hardware construction of cultural and tourism venues. The province has also established a research and service center for foreign language talents in the cultural and tourism industry, cultivating multilingual cultural and tourism talents and helping to expand the international tourism market. (New Society)