More people will choose to travel abroad during the Spring Festival holiday, or the Chinese Lunar New Year, and domestic travel market is shrinking, according to Shanghai's tourism authorities.

A total of 39,377 people in Shanghai, the country's economic hub, will travel abroad between Jan. 21 to Feb. 1, up 5.26 percent year on year,according to the municipal holiday travel office.

The number of people heading for Europe and Australia soared by 30 percent to 40 percent year on year during the holiday, according to the Shanghai Spring International Travel Agency.

Shopping overseas has become more attractive with the appreciation of the Chinese currency yuan and the drop of commodity price overseas, it said.

The number of people who will travel to Europe, Japan and China's Taiwan region will increase six to eight percent during the festival, said Liu Xiaojun, spokesman for the China CYTS Tours Holdings Co. Ltd. Shanghai branch.

A trip to Taiwan costs about 12,000 yuan (1,754 dollars), and a trip to Europe about 14,000 yuan (2,047 dollars).

"Outbound travel costs more but it still enjoys a rapid growth, which shows the high-income people have not suffered from the economic crunch," Liu said.

Domestic tour, however, is not so optimistic.

"The number of people for domestic travel is only a quarter of last year," said Lu Min, holiday program director of Shanghai Jinjiang International Travel Co. Ltd.

This indicates that the economic downturn has not taken its toll on the high-income people, but has affected much those with middle and low income," Lu said.

(Xinhua News Agency January 25, 2009)