BEIJING - More than 70 percent of Chinese consumers surveyed expect the tourism sector to recover after June, while 20 percent say it will recover after May, Tuesday's China Tourism News reported, citing data from a newly released tourism consumption confidence index.

This was the first time that the cultural and tourism industry index lab, jointly established by the newspaper, the national public opinion poll laboratory of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Alibaba Group, published the index.

The composite tourism consumption confidence index stood at 41.3, with the index for the current situation sitting at the bottom level at 13.8. The index for future expectation is 63.4, indicating a medium and low level.

"The recovery of the cultural and tourism market after the COVID-19 epidemic is likely to be a curved and gradual process," read the newspaper.

The survey was conducted between March 6 and 10 with a sample size of 1,000 people and will be conducted once a month in the future.

The survey shows that domestic tourism, especially short-range tours, will take the lead in recovering. Due to the global epidemic situation, outbound tourism is likely to resume gradually in the second half of the year, and the recovery of inbound tourism may take longer, according to the report.

Among the consumers who have planned to travel for the first time after the epidemic, 43.5 percent chose to go for a suburban outing, 20 percent for distant tours and 6.9 percent for overseas tours. About 30 percent of the respondents have no travel plans yet.