A recent survey by AC Neilson showed that in the three big mainland cities, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, 7 percent of those questioned (about 3000) said they had an outbound tour over the past 12 months; 7 percent said they planned for an outbound tour in the next 12 months.

Long-distance tours are becoming hot since 8 percent of the people said they would like to travel to the United States or France in the next 12 months.

The residents taking overseas tours mainly come from the families with monthly household income over 5000 yuan. 14 percent of those high-income families have been traveled overseas, according to the survey.

The survey intends to find out Chinese people’s attitude and their actions toward outbound tour.

According to board chairman of AC Neilson China branch Glen Murphy, China ranked at top in the world for outbound travel and there was a big jump in the percentage of Chinese city people that take outbound tours. This benefit the world’s tourist industry.

The survey also showed that 60 percent of those questioned said they traveled for leisure purpose and one-fifth (18 percent) of those took business travels. In addition, over half of the people travel for between 4-7 days at a single tour. China’s Hong Kong (23 percent) and southeast Asian countries like Singapore (16 percent) and Thailand (13 percent) are some of the favorite destinations for Chinese travelers.

Group tour still remains as visitors' first choice. 58 percent of the people choose group tour for their travel, compared with a 37 percent that prefer do-it-yourself tours.

(Chinanews.cn September 7, 2005)