Travel bug spreads to smaller cities

The Chinese urge to travel overseas is spreading deeper into the second- and third-tier cities, according to industry experts, with more firms now wooing customers with customized and cheaper packages.

Online travel service platform Mafengwo, for instance, has been targeting cities including Hunan province's capital city Changsha, Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, Zhengzhou, capital of Henan province, and Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan.

The upcoming Qingming festival (April 4), the May Day holiday, and the summer are all prime times for travel companies.