Posted by
restgo on Sunday, October 26, 2008 9:47:46 AM
Big cities as Beijing and Shanghai may be China’s best known travel destinations. However, according to a recent survey done by Visa, the world’s biggest credit card group, small and medium cities are now getting more eyeballs from potential travelers to China.
Not surprisingly, the largest majority among the 3140 Asian-Pacific responders who expressed willingness to visit China in recent days said Beijing (64%) and Shanghai (59%) are most likely their destination. 21% said Guangzhou, a city 120 km from Hong Kong, will be their choice. Much smaller but increasingly attractive Xi’an (17%) and Guilin (16%) also topped the most-favored 5 travel destinations.
Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) issued a similar report earlier. PATA says visitors to China are increasingly willing to enrich their experience through the newly introduced Cruise Tour and Green Journey. China has been active in promoting its national parks and countryside scenery. Large investments are granted to cruise tours in the Yangtze Delta and the Pearl River Delta to build up their attraction. Korea (76%) and Malaysia (79%) showed the highest interest in China tour. PATA estimates that by 2010 a total of 8.6 million and 1.4 million people from Korea and Malaysia will visit China annually.
The survey also shows that people from Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan already visited Mainland China are showing strong willing to come again.
Stilltravel.cn considers the rising interest a result of holiday reformation in China and a change in tourist tastes. China recently cut its 7-day Labour’s Day holiday to 3 days and added 4 more days off to avoid jams in popular travel destination cities during the long holidays. Smaller cities prove to be a better choice when the bigger ones got clogged by people and cars. (Source: Travelweekly)
Tags:PATA, Small Cities, Tourism, Visa