Tourism has become a trend for Chinese during the Spring Festival holiday. With the 7-day holiday approaching, the tourism industry is seeing a peak of orders for tourism products.

Aerial photo taken on Jan. 7, 2020 shows a night view of the 21st Harbin Ice-Snow World in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. (Xinhua/Xie Jianfei)

According to Lvmama, a Chinese business-to-consumer based e-tourism website, travel fever is expected to go up from Jan. 18, five days before the Spring Festival, and reach a peak between Jan. 24, Chinese New Year's Eve, and Jan. 26, the second day of the Chinese New Year.

In addition, due to the rise in flight ticket prices and hotels during the holiday, tourism products are also raising their general prices. Prices for most products are expected to rise by over half, and some may even double.

Experts noted that during this Spring Festival travel rush, nearly 40 percent of the passengers will not spend the Lunar New Year in their hometowns. Ten percent of them will celebrate the new year overseas, while nearly 30 percent will choose domestic tours.

Ctrip, an online Chinese tour service provider, estimated that around 450 million Chinese will travel during the 7-day Spring Festival holiday this year if there are no extreme weather conditions. Prices are no longer an issue for Chinese tourists, as they are now focusing more on the quality and experience of their trips, said Mafengwo, a major rival of Ctrip. Forty-five percent of tourists said they place more attention to food during their trips, while 30 percent value the comfort of hotels and transportation.

According to a big data report on tourism consumption habits jointly released by the China Tourism Academy and Ctrip, the northeastern Chinese cities of Harbin, Hailin and Changchun remained the top three destinations for winter tourism. Other sources also indicated the popularity of these places - one travel agency said the number of people planning to visit Changbaishan, Jilin and Zhangjiakou accounts for over half of the total visitors during the Spring Festival holiday.

In addition, many tourists are choosing to go south to avoid the bitter cold in their hometowns. Sanya, Kunming and Dali are all hot destinations.

With overseas destinations such as Japan, Sri Lanka and Thailand relaxing their visa policies for Chinese tourists, many Chinese visitors are planning to spend their holiday overseas.

Some short-distance destinations that have implemented visa-free or visa-on-arrival policies for Chinese nationals are expected to see a further rise in visits by Chinese during the Spring Festival holiday, said Chinese online travel agency Tuniu.com.