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Mainland tourists are expected to make the upcoming Golden Week truly golden.

With a longer holiday this year, a record 200 million travelers are set to drop an estimated 100 billion yuan ($14.6 billion) on vacations during the week, said the China Tourism Academy.

The National Day holiday, which falls in the first week of October, and the Mid-Autumn Festival, which this year falls on October 3, will together provide an eight-day holiday from October 1-8.

"Though only one day is added, people will have much more freedom (when making travel plans)," said Tang Yibo, director of the holiday section with Ctrip.com, a major online travel service in China.

The average traveler is expected to spend 500 yuan this year, up from 448 yuan in 2008.

Last year, 177 million tourists hit the roads during Golden Week.

Because of the additional day, nearly 30 percent of 1,500 people surveyed by Ctrip.com said they may arrange longer trips. Ten percent said they would increase their budgets.

The number of people planning to travel for five or six days during Golden Week increased by 50 percent over last year.

The China Tourism Academy estimated that 1.2 million mainland tourists will visit Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao during the week, and 300,000 will travel abroad.

Zhang Wei, general manager of the outbound department with the China International Travel Service head office, said that high-end tours to distant destinations such as Europe are already full.

Tang said some Ctrip.com trips to Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are sold out.

"People are more willing to travel outside of the mainland this National Day holiday, not only because of a longer holiday, but also because of a comparatively low price," Tang said.

Insiders said the price of tours to overseas destinations usually increases at least 20 percent during Golden Week, but this year the increase will be around 10 percent, encouraging more tourists to book vacations.

Questions:

1. What major online travel service is mentioned in the story?

2. How many mainland tourists will travel abroad during the upcoming holiday?

3. Why are people more willing to travel outside of the mainland this National Day holiday, according to Tang Yibo?

Answers:

1. Ctrip.com

2. 300,000.

3. Because of a longer holiday and because of a comparatively low price.

（英语点津 Helen 编辑）

About the broadcaster:

Nancy Matos is a foreign expert at China Daily Website. Born and raised in Vancouver, Canada, Nancy is a graduate of the Broadcast Journalism and Media program at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. Her journalism career in broadcast and print has taken her around the world from New York to Portugal and now Beijing. Nancy is happy to make the move to China and join the China Daily team.