Full moon tourism takes off

A woman takes a selfie at a park in Shijiazhuang, Hebei province. CHEN QIBAO/FOR CHINA DAILY

"Now, it is only half a month away from the National Day holiday, and the number of travelers registering for tour packages during the break surged 60 percent compared with last week. Spaces on some popular tours and routes have been filled," said Tang Chen, store manager of a Ctrip store in the Shuangjing area of Beijing

Meanwhile, Ctrip found that the peak flight prices during the National Day holiday occur between Sept 29 and Oct 2. It would be 30 to 40 percent cheaper to fly before Sept 29 or after Oct 2, it said.

"Prices of travel packages during the Mid-Autumn Festival are much cheaper than the golden week break in October. Travelers would save a considerable amount of money, avoid the crowds and have better experiences, if they avoided the peak days," said Li Fan, general manager of domestic trips department of Ctrip.

Besides, the majority of Chinese tourists who travel abroad choose to stay at high-end hotels, with more than 60 percent of travelers booking four-star and five-star hotels. For families traveling with children, nearly 90 percent booked luxury hotels, according to data from the Ctrip Hotel College Data Research Center.