Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang province, saw a year-on-year rise of 5.3 percent in the occupancy rate of luxury hotels in 2021, according to the Hangzhou Culture and Tourism Development Center on Jan 21.

The city's hotels saw a decline in general revenue compared with the previous year due to sporadic outbreaks of COVID-19, especially in August which is the peak travel season.

However, the city saw a slight growth in the occupancy rate of its luxury hotels last year, indicating tourists' increasing preference for higher-quality tourism experiences, the report stated.

The report also showed that the number of tourists who stayed overnight at hotels in Hangzhou grew by 7.2 percent year-on-year.

The report attributed the growth to the increasing popularity of rural tourism among Chinese tourists.

As Hangzhou is stepping up its efforts to boost the "beautiful villages" campaign, rural areas in Hangzhou have been developing the tourism industry to bring prosperity to villagers.