30 million Chinese booked their holidays online last year

With millions of Chinese logging on to the Internet to book air tickets and hotel rooms, travel websites have turned out to be a major hit in the country's tourism industry.

A little more than 30 million Chinese went online to book hotel rooms, air tickets and tour packages last year, an increase of 13 million compared to the figure in 2008, according to a China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) report.

The sector's year-on-year growth of 77.9 percent has exceeded growths in online stock trading (67 percent), online banking (62 percent), and online shopping (46 percent). The only sector it lagged behind was online payments, which witnessed an 81-percent year-on-year growth in 2009, the report said.