National Day bookings for travel to US up threefold

The number of Chinese traveling to the United States during China's National Day holiday in October is expected to rise remarkably, in keeping with an expected overall increase for the whole year, tourism industry insiders said.

Bookings for travel to the US during the National Day holiday, from Oct 1 to 7, are triple the number from last year, according to a report released on Tuesday by lvmama.com, a major online travel booking platform.

Ni Jiali, general manager of Lvmama.com's outbound tourism department, said the rise resulted from beneficial tourism policies adopted by both China and the US.

"2016 is the Sino-US tourism year, and a lot of events are being hosted against this backdrop," she said, citing as an example the high-level China-US dialogue on tourism held this month in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region.

Additionally, the US Commerce Department will work with the China National Tourism Administration to cultivate new travel paths, and seminars will be held to figure out ways to improve tourists' travel experience, she said.

Such factors as the mutual approval of visas allowing multiple entries within 10 years and the launch of new direct flights between the two countries are also making a difference, according to Yu Wenjun, director of US travel for Ctrip, a leading online travel agency.

Bookings at Ctrip for travel to the US during the weeklong holiday have increased by 40 percent over the same period last year, making the US the fourth-favorite destination for Chinese tourists during the coming holiday.

The first three destinations are all China's neighbors - Thailand, South Korea and Japan.

The number of Chinese tourists traveling to the US has increased greatly in the past decade. Last year alone saw nearly 2.7 million - a fourfold increase from the number in 2007.

"I believe that with the help of all these happenings around the Sino-US tourism year, this number will not only swell during the upcoming weeklong holiday, but also for the whole year," said Ni of Lvmama.com.

zhaoxinying@chinadaily.com.cn