Graphics: GT

Graphics: GT

East and Southeast Asia remain the top picks of China's outbound travelers during the upcoming Spring Festival holiday, according to domestic travel agents, revealing an emerging trend for solo travel - especially among young people.

Japan sits atop a list of the 10 most popular neighboring destinations for outbound tourism during the Spring Festival, Ctrip, China's largest online travel agency, said in a statement sent to the Global Times. The weeklong statutory holiday, the most important festival for Chinese people, begins on Friday. 

It is estimated that tens of thousands of people will take package tours to Japan via the travel agency during the holiday, read the statement. It mentioned the trend of Chinese tourists appreciating the snow scenes and hot springs in Japan. Relaxed Japanese visa requirements for Chinese nationals effective since September 2019, which allow them to apply for Japanese visas online, are considered a boon for the continued popularity of Japan among Chinese travelers during the traditional holiday.

Thailand held second spot on the ranking, followed by Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam.  

A report the Global Times obtained from Tencent-backed user-generated travel content site Mafengwo revealed similar findings. Southeast Asia and Japan are among the most-sought-after destinations, according to the report.

Bangkok, Thailand's capital, is the most popular destination, ahead of Japan's Osaka and Tokyo. 

In addition to the traditional favorite destinations for outbound tourism, cities in Russia including Murmansk, Saint Petersburg, Vladivostok, and Moscow are ranked among the 10 overseas destinations with the greatest increase in interest, according to the Mafengwo report.   

The novel pneumonia that was originally diagnosed in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei Province, and has been found to have spread to more cities in the country including Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, might stoke interest in overseas travel during the holiday, observers said.

"I'm considering ditching plans to travel domestically and going to Japan instead," a Beijing resident surnamed Qin told the Global Times, citing fears of the coronavirus, which had claimed six lives in Wuhan as of Tuesday. 

An emerging trend has also been identified for the forthcoming holiday, with both Ctrip and Mafengwo making special mention of solo travel.

Instead of enjoying family reunions during the holiday, many young people are contemplating how to survive the reunions as their parents and relatives might take the advantage of the festival to urge them to get married. As a consequence, an increasing number of young people opt to travel solo during the holiday, according to Mafengwo findings. 

Data from the site showed that prior to this year's Spring Festival, the number of people searching for and browsing content related to solo travel grew 28 percent year-on-year. Those under 30 accounted for more than 70 percent of the site's users planning for solo travel during the holiday.

Ctrip estimated that solo visits would reach 30 million during the upcoming holiday, about 7 percent of the total number. Ctrip also forecast that those born in the 1980s and 1990s would represent 64 percent of the total solo-travel population and female travelers would account for 56 percent of the total.

Ctrip didn't give estimates for the number of solo travelers who will head for overseas destinations, but it said that Japan, Thailand, Singapore, the US, Australia, Italy, the UK and Russia made the list of most-favored options.