CCTV9英语新闻：Domestic travel sees new trends during holiday

China's tourism industry has been flourishing during the week-long National Day holiday. More than 532 million domestic trips are expected to between Oct. 1st and 7th. And a variety of measures are being rolled out to ensure a safe, happy vacation for China's tourists. CCTV's Hou Na spoke to Dai Bin, president of the China Tourism Academy about some new trends in this year's golden week holiday.

 

It's travel time. More than 532 million domestic trips are expected during the seven-day National Day Holiday. That's a ten percent increase compared with the same period last year.

 

"This year the Mid-Autumn Festival is very close to the National Day Holiday, so many people chose to take a vacation during the period. We have seen more domestic and overseas trips made compared with same period last year," said Dai Bin, president of the China Tourism Academy.

 

Dai Bin, president of the China Tourism Academy has been closely monitoring the daily travel data from October 1st to the seventh. He has noticed some new trends during this year's week long holiday.

 

"We have seen less visitors at traditional scenic spots, but more travelers in non-traditional sites such as cultural relics and shopping malls. Travelers would rather mingle with local people than just go to traditional sites. More and more visitors are using apps on smart phones to search for travel information," he said.

 

The apps allow visitors to check tourist flow during their visits and provide suggestions for those wanting to go to the city's top tourist destinations, such as their opening times, how busy they are and their capacity.

 

The Palace Museum in Beijing, also known as the Forbidden City, reported a smooth first day of its busiest season since adopting a visitor control policy.

 

Huge visitor inflow during the week-long holiday has put pressure on the museum facilities and management. The Palace Museum has adopted a daily limit of 80,000 visitors per day since June. According to official data, the number of visitors have dropped by 20 percent during the holiday.

 

Last year, the Palace Museum received 640,000 visitors in the seven day holiday. Its record high was 800,000 in 2012.

 

Since June 13 this year, the Forbidden City has required that visitors purchase tickets using IDs, such as passports, with advanced booking online strongly encouraged.

 

To ease visitors into the new policy, the museum increased the daily quota for online booking to 50,000 tickets and encouraged the public to book in advance to prevent competition for limited tickets at the ticket office.

 

Though the 7-day National Day holiday comes to an end on Wednesday, the country's traffic has witnessed travel peak as holiday makers come back home. But to fundamentally ease travel congestion, experts say a more rational paid vacation system is needed so that people can choose whenever they want to have a vacation.