Xiao Ling, who works for a foreign company, has been thinking about where to spend the winter holiday during the Spring Festival and, after searching the Internet, has opted for Lijiang in Yunnan Province.

Just by tapping on "plane ticket" and "hotel", she was able to sign up for the Lijiang journey with relative ease.

This do-it-yourself approach to holiday travel has got a good welcome these days among many Chinese.

Wang Xiaoyun, the manager of the Beijing-based Comfort Travel Agency's Hong Kong and Macao Department says, "Since October, do-it-yourself tours have been in vogue, and many people prefer this method.

"More than half the tour reservations for Hong Kong and Macao in our company are done this way," she said.

One CTA sales clerk told China Business Weekly that the Spring Festival this year will cause a flurry of do-it-yourself tour arrangements.

A new policy on tours to Hong Kong and Macao took effect this past September in big cities like Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou, with traditional package tours gradually being replaced by the do-it-yourself models.

China Youth Travel Service (CYTS) reports that, since December, more than 4,000 have signed up for Hong Kong and Macao travel, with a third of them being do-it-yourself.

In these cases, the travel agent just arranges the plane ticket and hotel reservations.

The rest of the itinerary is left up to the individual.

The agent can provide help in arranging special services such as car rentals or better accommodations and interesting activities.

But, one reason for the do-it-yourself approach, which can cost more, is that the economy has been stronger in recent years.

And a much more mature tourism industry is encouraging this, said Lu Chengqi, CTA's head of market development.

At the start of 2003, about 10 European, American, Oceanic and Asian destinations were opened to Chinese. These included India, Hungary, Pakistan, Cuba, Germany and New Zealand.

By now, there are 31 countries on this Chinese destination list.

Many of these countries are made for the do-it-yourselfer.

There are also new air routes to meet the growing tourist demands.

By the end of 2003, there was a direct link from Guangzhou in Guangdong Province to Sabah in Malaysia, given new flavour to Southeast Asian travel.

These direct air links make it easier for do-it-yourself tours, said Lu.

Still, the areas accessible to Chinese are limited. They include Hong Kong, Macao, the Maldives, Sabah and Germany.

Obviously, because of the similarities in culture and environment to China, Hong Kong and Macao remain popular.

People have to pay more for the do-it-yourself tour during Spring Festival.

Because of the higher price of plane tickets, the cost for the Maldives went up about 8,000 yuan to 16,000 (US$1,932.37).

The cost of do-it-yourself tours to Hong Kong rose from 2,800 yuan to 3,200 yuan (US$386.47) because of the cost of accommodation.

Because of exchange rates, those to Australia and Europe increased about 2,000 yuan (US$241.55).

However, this is still cheap when compared with travel alone.

Areas that have a warm climate are still the favorites.

One CYTS manager in charge of tourism abroad said that places like Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia are popular with the do-it-yourself tourists, especially in the winter.

So, Japan and Korea are less popular than in previous years.

The opinions on this form of tour differ.

One clerk at CYTS said that the popularity of this form of travel did in fact have a negative impact on travel agencies profits.

However, Lu said, the do-it-yourself approach is the natural result from a developed market.

"Currently, there may be fewer profits for travel agencies, but in the long term, we'll benefit as well as tourists," Lu said.

(Business Weekly 01/13/2004 page9)