Only a few seats are available for package tours to Europe during the upcoming weeklong National Day holiday beginning October 1, according to local travel agencies.

The agencies also said that increasingly more people were interested in destinations such as Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand, for short-distance outbound tours, after Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore were fully explored over recent years.

Chen suiqin, manager of the outbound tours department with Shanghai China Travel International, said tourists signing up for the agency's European tours had increased 20 percent this year, compared with last year.

"Since it takes about 15 days for visa application, the signing up is close to the end, if tourists want a 'golden week' holiday visit," said Chen.

Jiang weihao, manager of the outbound tours department with Spring International, also said that it had no vacancies for package tours to Europe.

China gave approved destination status to European countries, including France, Switzerland and Italy, only in September last year, and thus the destinations are still alluring.

Meanwhile, said Jiang, "We notice that tourists who signed up for Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia are increasing, compared with the numbers during the previous weeklong holidays in February and May."

Jiang's analysis was that since these destinations need less travel time, compared with the tours to Europe, they are replacing Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore for short-distance tours.

According to travel agencies, the price of outbound package tours remained stable.

To inform consumers the price of outbound tours during "golden week," the first week in October, the National Tourism Administration has issued a reference book containing prices of 11 destinations of outbound tours, mainly Southeast Asian and European countries.

Prices, though stable, are slightly higher than in the slack season. It is difficult to predict the sales of domestic tours right now, since they won't come to the peak time for signing up until mid-September.

(Shanghai Daily September 9, 2005)