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More Chinese mainlanders go outbound for Spring Festival holiday

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-02-23 09:41

BEIJING: Chinese mainlanders made more outbound trips during the just-concluded one-week Lunar New Year holiday compared with a year ago, the Ministry of Public Security said Monday.

The number of entries and exits by mainlanders across the Chinese mainland border from Feb 13 to 19 grew by 20.8 percent to almost 2.4 million, the ministry said in a statement to Xinhua.

Jiang Yiyi, a researcher at the China Tourism Academy, attributed the popularity of outbound trips mainly to rapid economic growth on the Chinese mainland, easier access to visas and people becoming more willing to spend money.

According to the China Youth Travel Service (CYTS), popular outbound destinations for Chinese mainlanders included Southeast Asia, Australia and Taiwan.

Taiwan tourism authorities said earlier this month that there would be up to 4,000 mainland visitors a day to the island during the New Year holiday.

Since Taiwan lifted the ban on mainland tourist groups in June 2008, almost 650,000 mainlanders had visited the island by the end of 2009, spending more than $1.13 billion.