"Since last year, our Shanghai office has also been working with five leading outbound tour operators in Shanghai to launch the Western America tour package targeting the Chinese New Year holiday," she said.
Preliminary figures show that Chinese citizens made more than 80 million trips to other countries in 2012, Dai Bin, president of the China Tourism Academy, said on Thursday.
Li Zhi, a 31-year-old engineer from Beijing, got tired of the huge crowds lining up at this time of the year in Chinese cities to buy train tickets to their hometowns.
He found he could beat the February travel rush and stay within his travel budget by taking a 12-day trip to the US.
"I'll pay for my parents' travel expenses and have a special Spring Festival with them in the United States this year," Li said.
Generous holiday spending indicates to friends and family that one is on good financial footing. "Not to mention spending the holiday in the US is very cool and worth showing off!" he exclaimed.
Meanwhile, Chinese consumers also prefer more high-end tourism products in the US, some business insiders said.
"The middle and high-end tourism routes to the US are our main products in the festival this year," said Zhang Qingzhu, marketing manager of China Comfort Travel Group.
Zhang said the agency launches products like golf and island tours in the US according to consumer demands.
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