National Day tourism to set new records

The water town of Suzhou and Chongqing's Fengdu Ghost Town are among the hot tourist destinations during public holidays. [Photo provided to China Daily]

An annual mass migration of vacationers is set to reach new heights this year.

Nearly half of China is expected to travel during the upcoming National Day holiday.

The country's tourists are forecast to spend a fortune over the weeklong period, which starts on Oct 1.

Roughly 590 million Chinese will tour during the vacation, up 12 percent over last year, a late September China Tourism Academy report says.

Tourism revenue is projected to grow 13.5 percent to reach 478.2 billion ($71.7 billion). That's 800 yuan per capita.

Domestic and outbound tourism markets have experienced brisk supply and demand, China's biggest online agency, Ctrip, reports.

"Most domestic and outbound routes' prices have stayed steady," Ctrip's publicity director Peng Liang says.

"Some even dropped."

Many routes were booked by over 10,000 tourists, Peng says.

The Yangtze River Delta Area, including Zhejiang's provincial capital, Hangzhou, and Shanghai, are expected to receive record numbers.

A new Disneyland recently opened in Shanghai. Hangzhou recently hosted the G20 Summit.

Traditionally popular destinations, such as Hainan province's Sanya, Sichuan province's Jiuzhaigou Valley and Yunnan province's Lijiang, will continue to embrace waves of tourists.

While figures for outbound travel bookings from China aren't yet available, they're expected to exceed last year's.