WUHAN, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Central China's Hubei Province, which has been hit hard by the COVID-19 epidemic, received a total of 7.35 million tourists during the May Day holiday.

Tourism revenue generated during the five-day holiday totaled 2.45 billion yuan (about 345 million U.S. dollars), according to Hubei provincial administration of culture and tourism.

Both figures mark a sharp drop from those during the May Day holiday last year, but they indicate that tourism is steadily rebounding in the hard-hit province as the epidemic has eased.

Hubei lowered its level of novel coronavirus emergency response from the highest to the second-highest starting May 2.