Eastern European countries have become a major new destination for Chinese tourists.

Countries from eastern and middle Europe, which had earlier drawn less interest from Chinese tourists, are becoming favourite itineraries during the ongoing weekly May Day holidays, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Top country destinations to eastern Europe include Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic, according to the China Travel International Ltd (CTI), based in Beijing, one of the largest travel agencies in China.

The CTI said its tour groups to eastern Europe had been long booked out before this May Day holidays.

The eastern European countries are also the favourite destinations for tourists not travelling with established companies.

Feng Li, an amateur racing car driver, spoke candidly of his views of travelling to eastern Europe, just before an exploration trip with his friends.

"We've been to countries in western Europe many times," Feng said. "Now it is time for us to extend our horizons to the east. Countries in eastern Europe are certainly good tourism designations."

New statistics from Austrian Airlines have revealed a China "frenzy" to holiday and visit eastern Europe.

Despite high oil prices, Austrian Airlines has an occupancy rate of 74.1 per cent, carrying more than 10.1 million passengers last year, the highest on record in its company history.

"The Chinese tourism market has a great potential and has partly contributed to the rising number of passengers carried by our company," a senior staff member of Austrian Airlines was quoted by Xinhua as saying.

In the first quarter this year, the company has carried more revenue passengers than the corresponding period of last year, reaching double-digit growth rates.

Vienna, the capital of Austria, is the place where most passengers from China stop over to countries in eastern Europe and has connected 45 destinations in 23 countries in Europe. Other favoured tourism sites are cities in Russia, Ukraine and Romania.

(China Daily 05/03/2006 page2)