Holidays reveal huge appetite for overseas trips

At the Piazzale Michelangelo in Florence, Italy, a street performer asked his audience where they came from. When he called out China, a sea of hands shot up amid cheers and applause.

The scene was captured in one of the viral videos during this year's Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays that propelled the buzz phrase "the whole world knows China is on holiday" into a trending topic on Chinese social media.

It also reflected a broader shift — Chinese tourists ventured further overseas, while international visitors continued to pour into China.

China recorded 15.46 million inbound and outbound border crossings during the National Day holiday from Oct 1 to 7, up 6.7 percent year-on-year, according to the National Immigration Administration.

Chinese mainland residents made 4.44 million outbound crossings, up 9.3 percent, while foreign nationals made 682,000 inbound entries, an increase of 5.4 percent. Of those foreign entries, 505,000 were visa-free, a rise of 9.2 percent.

With the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday falling between Sept 25 and 27, travelers could take three days of annual leave to create a 13-day-long break, opening up opportunities for longer and more distant journeys.

Europe was the leading long-haul destination for clients of the Beijing-based travel operator Utour Group during the National Day holiday, with a reported 140 percent year-on-year increase in Europe-bound travel bookings. The region accounted for nearly half of Utour Group's outbound business during the holiday period.

Li Mengran, the company's marketing manager, said that demand for Europe, North America and Oceania reflected Chinese travelers' growing appetite for higher-quality overseas experiences.

The growth, however, was uneven. Japan dropped out of the top 10 overseas destinations on travel platform Tuniu this year, after ranking first a year earlier. Indonesia, Turkiye and South Korea were among popular choices. Arrivals into Japan from the Chinese mainland fell 56.7 percent year-on-year to about 2.9 million in the first eight months, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization.

Meanwhile, overseas visitors were increasingly discovering more of China.

Trip.com Group reported double-digit growth in inbound travel during the combined holiday period, with bookings from Russia jumping 173 percent year-on-year. Britain, Malaysia and Canada each registered growth exceeding 50 percent.

For some visitors, the festive atmosphere was itself an attraction. An Irish tourist identified as Alan told China Daily that activities planned across China during the National Day holiday had helped persuade him to visit.

Wu Liyun, a professor at the China Academy of Culture and Tourism at Beijing International Studies University, attributed the growth to expanded visa-free policies, China's rising visibility on social media overseas and interest in experiencing Chinese festivities.

lijing2009@chinadaily.com.cn