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Mainland tourists want to shop in Hong Kong.* |
Dalian residents see Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong as among their favoured travel destinations, with shopping at the top of the agenda. Conversely, shopping tours have become lucrative streams of sales for travel agents, with end-of-year and holiday destination offers snapped up.
According to a prominent Dalian travel agency, many local people are keen to take shopping trips, rather than simply go sightseeing.
Tours depart daily for Hong Kong, particularly from early December, with four- or five-day packages this season carrying price tags from Rmb3,280. To show how popular they are, the best Hong Kong hotels were fully booked over Christmas and the New Year 2009 and Dalian's travel agents stopped taking bookings early.
Winter sales in Hong Kong started at the end of November, with shops large and small offering discounts enticing tourists with inexpensive, quality products. Another reason for the attraction to Hong Kong is that parents love visiting Hong Kong Disneyland with their children.
To travel to Hong Kong, many Dalian tourists now opt for the cheaper route via Shenzhen, making it difficult to pin down the actual numbers of those travelling. Yet judging from the passenger throughput of Dalian's flights to Hong Kong, there may well be over 100 Dalian people travelling to the territory each day.
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Due to a favourable exchange rate, more people are also heading for South Korea to shop, as locally-produced goods there are all reasonably priced.
An experienced travel agent operating chartered flights from Dalian to Jeju Island in South Korea explains that there are two chartered flights each week (Monday and Friday). A package including airfare, accommodation in a four-star hotel and meals sells for about Rmb2,000.
With its beautiful scenery, Jeju appeals for its visa-free entry to Mainland travellers, the short one hour and forty minutes travelling time and attractive retail.
Products at Jeju's duty-free stores are around 30% cheaper than at Dalian's shops, with cosmetics, honey and Korean ginseng particularly sought after by tourists. Taiwan also aims to attract Mainland tourists, launching its "New Year celebration special routes" with free gifts consisting of eight types of special Taiwan produce. Priced at Rmb6,980, these tours are well-received by people wanting to visit scenic spots, while bargain hunting at the same time.
Hot springs and shopping tours in Japan are also proving attractive to Mainland tourists. A 6-day-5-night package in Tokyo sells for around Rmb5,990. Trips to Hokkaido are expensive, with a similar package costing Rmb8,900 and up.
In Japan, tourists purchase mainly electronic products, while cosmetics and clothes at duty-free shops are equally popular.
Trips to the US have finally entered the stage of actual operation and all qualified outbound travel agents can now handle the business. A 16-day regular trip to the east and west coasts and Hawaii includes seven flight segments.
The price of tours to the US is quoted at around Rmb18,400. Necessary documents lodged with the travel agent beforehand are all that are required to travel.
However, tourists need to go to Shenyang for an interview a month before the trip and pay a deposit of between Rmb80,000 and Rmb100,000, depending on personal particulars and proof of assets.
from John Yu, Dalian Office
(*Image courtesy of Xinhua News Agency)
