Overseas tourism destinations, especially Hong Kong, Southeast Asia and Australia, are popular with Shenzhen residents in this year's Spring Festival, despite the rise of travel costs by 30-50 percent during the holidays. The figure is based on a random survey carried out by the Shenzhen Daily among several local travel companies.

Cui Junying, a travel consultant with Shenzhen Friendship International Travel Service, said clients who inquired about overseas tours made up their mind more quickly than those who asked about domestic tours. "But trips in Guangdong are not as well received because people can travel locally on weekends. More people want to take advantage of the weeklong holiday to travel long distances."

"Travel price hikes are 15 percent higher than that in 2005 Spring Festival season, however, it seems not to have affected the enthusiasm of Shenzheners," said Tan Hao, manager of Shenzhen Pengyu International Travel Service.

Eachtravel, one of the largest outbound tour operators in Shenzhen, has introduced many high-end overseas tour packages, whose costs are normally about 10 percent higher than offers at other agencies. "Many clients who travel during Spring Festival holidays are those who are wealthy but have no time to travel during other times of the year. Higher prices are equal to higher values and it turns out that our customers give us favorable feedback," said a manager surnamed Wang.

These travel companies all expressed their optimism about the outbound tours of 2006. Statistics from the local tourism bureau show that a total of 623,000 Shenzhen residents traveled abroad in 2005.

Editor: Yan