More Chinese hitting the road on Qixi Festival

New statistics from Ctrip, China's largest online travel agency, show that an increasing number of Chinese couples are traveling for this year's Qixi Festival, and tourism costs have reached 3,350 yuan ($486.5) on average, 10 percent higher than last year.

According to a report published by Ctrip, over 200,000 consumers booked holiday packages through the online platform as of Wednesday, surpassing the number for Valentine's Day this year. Most trips were within China or nearby nations.

The numbers of travelers choosing more private customized tours saw an increase of up to 375 percent.

People from the post-1980 and post-1990 generations are still the main consumption driving force, together accounting for 35 percent of total travelers, followed by the post-2000 generation with 27 percent.

In a noteworthy trend, the number of solo travelers has significantly increased this year to 30 percent.

Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou, along with other second-tier cities, were top sources of travelers. Meanwhile, the most popular destinations for couples and lovers were Sanya, Beijing, Guiyang and Hong Kong.

At the same time, the top three cities with the most per capita expenditures around Qixi were Tianjin with 4,238 yuan, Kunming with 4,036 yuan, and Shanghai with 3,919 yuan.

Japan, Thailand and Singapore stood out as the leading outbound getaways, though Turkey emerged as a dark horse this year, thanks to its weaker lira drawing more Chinese tourists.

As this year's Qixi Festival falls on a Friday, many took more days off for their vacations. The report shows 27.08 percent travelers took less than three days, 47.63 percent took four to six days, and 25 percent even spent more than a week.