B&R destinations more popular among Chinese tourists
Ctrip, a Shanghai-based online travel agency, predicted that nearly 7 million Chinese traveled abroad during the 7-day Spring Festival holiday which started on February 4. Countries along the Belt and Road routes, such as Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates and Cambodia are among the most popular oversea destinations. Meanwhile, the amount of visitors to Eastern European countries increased by nearly 40 percent year on year.
According to a report released on Sunday by Lvmama, another online travel agency, the volume of trips to long-distance destinations for at least eight days during the Spring Festival holiday increased by 23 percent year on year.
According to the China Tourism Academy (CTA), in 2017, 27 million Chinese traveled to B&R destinations, up 77 percent compared with 2013.
Dai Bin, CTA president, said B&R destinations are quite attractive to Chinese tourists for their beautiful natural scenery and various historical and cultural resources, and there are several positive factors fueling China's outbound travel such as more convenient visa policies, more direct flights, more individualized travel products, and convenient payment environments.