Enthusiasm for the usually marketable tours to Southeast Asian destinations has dampened significantly by the December 26 tsunami.

Individuals looking to travel during the Spring Festival are ignoring Asian beach destinations and looking at skiing trips or tours to either Hong Kong or Macao.

Many local travel companies said Hainan Island and countries not affected by the tsunami catastrophe are popular choices.

"Skiing tours to South Korea and Japan are selling well," said Zhao Dexiang, general manager of the Shanghai International Travel Service. "We've also designed more trips to Hong Kong and Macao, and booked 10 percent more air seats during the holiday,"

Zhao said prices and trip durations are similar to Southeast Asian beach trips, the main reasons these places have become popular.

A seven-day tour to the resort island of Phuket in Thailand before the tsunami was about 5,000 yuan (US$602), he said, while a five-day trip to Seoul and Jeju Island in South Korea during the Spring Festival will be about 4,000 yuan.

According to a survey on people's Spring Festival travel plans, conducted by Shanghai-based Ctrip.com, 40 percent of those who initially planned to go to Southeast Asian countries have changed their routes to inbound products.

Those surveyed includes 3,000 members of the country's largest online travel agency. Each has an annual income between 30,000 yuan and 60,000 yuan.

Sanya in Hainan Province and Lijiang, Yunnan Province, are the most popular destinations in the country.

Meanwhile, 38 percent of trip planners said they would still travel abroad, but destinations had changed to countries such as Japan, South Korea, Australia or somewhere in Europe.

Close to 20 percent, hoping for a possible discount, said they will travel to unaffected areas of the tsunami-stricken countries.

The survey also indicated that skiing is considerably more popular this year. About 32 percent of those choosing domestic travel packages said they plan to go skiing, most of whom will head to Harbin, Heilongjiang Province.

(Shanghai Daily January 14, 2005)