More fly at the chance to take foreign vacations during Chinese New Year

BEIJING - More Chinese tourists decided to spend their Spring Festival holidays overseas this year, despite a sharp rise in the cost of such foreign vacations.

Data released by the National Holiday Tourism Office on Wednesday showed that 67,500 people left Beijing for overseas trips during the holidays, a 60 percent rise year-on-year.

The spike came in spite of such trips costing more. Prices of vacations to Hong Kong, Europe and the Middle East rose by 15 percent on average, and excursions to Thailand's Phuket Island and Saipan Island in the western Pacific rose by 30 percent.