During China's 2014 celebration of its National Day, occuring from Oct. 1 to 7 every year, more citizens traveled overseas, civil aviation authorities observed.
According to the National Tourism Administration, the increase in foreign travels was due to the visa-free or visa-on-arrival programs offered by other countries that target Chinese citizens. Japan, Thailand and South Korea are among the most visited destinations during the Golden Week holiday.
Data from China Southern Airlines provide supporting information, indicating a 20-percent increase in overseas travels and a 4-percent surge in domestic flights.
Despite the spike of overseas travels during the weeklong holiday, NTA still noted that fewer domestic travelers flew for the first half of the year compared to last year. Data showed that only 62.31 million Chinese flew overseas during this period, falling behind by 2.8 percent from the previous year's record.
No official figures for the overseas trips during the Golden Week holiday have been published yet. But initial statistics revealed that nearly 970,000 citizens from the mainland traveled to Hong Kong, increasing last year's record by 5 percent. Macau travelers from the mainland climbed to 750,000, which was higher by 16 percent over last year. The greatest increase was with Taiwan travelers, which garnered 26,000 visitors that translated to an over 50-percent increase in flights from last year.
Looking at travels within the mainland alone, authorities noted a 3.8-percent increase from last year. This equaled to 32 million tourists and visitors who traveled to see over 120 sceneries. However, spend on tickets for sites among domestic tourists declined by 2.43 percent, or a deficit of $261 million.
In September, China Tourism Academy predicted that the deficit in China's tourism will surpass $100 billion this 2014. It added that tourism revenue will increase by 20 percent, with 116 million Chinese forecast to travel abroad and spend $155 million.