CRI听力:More Chinese Travelers to Go Overseas for Spring Festival

The number of bookings by outbound Chinese tourists has almost doubled this year from the same period last year.

Chinese travel portal ly.com is suggesting Chinese outbound tourists are more willing to travel to neighboring places in Asia than anywhere else.

South Korea tops the destination list, followed by Hong Kong and Macao, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Maldives and Singapore.

Zhang Tiemin is with China International Travel Services.

"Spring Festival tours to Japan and South Korea are extremely popular. So judging from the applications we've got now, tour groups from 16th to 22nd February are fully packed."

Dai Bin with the China Tourism Academy says many countries including the United States, Japan, certain European countries and Australia, have launched easier visa services for Chinese nationals, or have waived their visa requirements all-together.

"Apart from the extended period of validity, visa facilitation also makes it easier and less costly for tourists to obtain visas, including visa on arrival, visa-free and group visa. The eased visa policies have made it more convenient for Chinese people to travel overseas."

The falling exchange rate of several currencies including the U.S. dollar, Australian dollar, Euro and Japanese yen is also proving to be an incentive for many people to travel abroad.

The Lunar New Year is China's most important family holiday, with hundreds of millions of people returning to their hometown to meet with families and old friends.

But spending the holiday traveling abroad is also quickly becoming a notable alternative.

It's believed between the first and third day of the Chinese Lunar New Year, the prices for tour packages are likely to be pushed up by around 25-percent due to the increased demand.

For CRI, I am Niu Honglin.