SINGAPORE: With the long weekend Lunar New Year
holidays this year, more people in Singapore are choosing to
celebrate the festivities outside the country.
Another reason for the stronger demand for Lunar New
Year travel this year is because of Singapore's robust economic
recovery in 2010, said travel agencies.
CTC Travel and Chan Brothers saw bookings for this
year's Lunar New Year travel coming in as early as August last
year.
Travel agencies MediaCorp spoke to said bookings for holidays and
tours rose 15-20% compared to the same period last year.
CTC Travel's Alicia Seah said the increase was despite airfare
hikes due to higher fuel surcharges and airport taxes.
In fact, she said many airlines have increased the number of
flights to popular destinations.
Korean Airlines and Asiana Airlines have added about 20 flights in
February alone.
She said China Airlines has even arranged for two special chartered
flights into Taiwan during the Lunar New Year period.
But where are holiday makers heading?
Ms Jane Chang, assistant manager for marketing & communications
at Chan Brothers Travel, said: "The more popular places for CNY
this year would be China, Japan, Vietnam, Australia and Korea, in
that particular order.
"For some destinations such as China, we have specially-themed
Chinese New Year travel packages, where the travellers actually get
to visit minority villages and they get to celebrate the
festivities with the locals, which are very different from our
bustling city lifestyle.
"And one of the highlights is that the families get to set off
firecrackers, something the younger generation of Singaporeans
don't or probably have never experienced before."
Some holidaymakers are venturing further to places like Europe and
Australia.
Some are also choosing to travel differently. Travel agencies said
they have seen an increase in the number of people opting for
cruise travel during this Lunar New Year period.
They see such travel as a potential area for growth.
For Chan Brothers, demand for cruises has doubled during this Lunar
New Year period, compared to last year.
Ms Jane Chang of Chan Brothers said they are not just weekend
cruises, but also cruises to regional and worldwide
destinations.
- CNA/ir