Traveling with parents to land of love

"I was overwhelmed by their urge to get in touch with nature and be free," Wang says.

Last year, Chinese travelers made 155 million outbound trips, up 3.3 percent year-on-year, reports the China Tourism Academy, a professional research institute of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

They spent a cumulative $133.8 billion while on their trips in 2019, a year-on-year increase of more than 2 percent.

The outbound travel market has ground to a halt as the Ministry of Culture and Tourism has required all travel agencies to suspend the organization of group tours to outbound destinations to better tackle the pandemic.

Many of those travelers are turning to the domestic market.

During this year's Nov 11 Singles Day online shopping spree, which started on Nov 1, advance flight bookings from Sanya, Hainan province, to popular winter destinations such as Jilin province's Changbai Mountain rose more than 90 percent compared with a month ago at Alibaba's travel portal Fliggy.

The data also shows that tourists' interest in winter tourism destinations in Northeast China has increased 300 percent, and ski bookings have increased 110 percent from last winter.

Nine travel brands, including Hainan Airlines, Chimelong, Marriott and Hilton, saw trade break the 100 million yuan ($15.20 million) mark during this year's shopping spree, compared to only two brands during last year's Singles Day retail frenzy, according to Zhuang Zhuoran, a senior official with Fliggy.

Over 180,000 hotel buffet meals were sold during the spree, and RV tour product sales grew by 1,800 percent year-on-year.

But, experts were optimistic about outbound tourism in the long run, because of the nation's steadily recovering economy and the public's desire to see other parts of the world.

People's aspirations to live a better life remain unchanged, which can spell a better future for the outbound tourism market, says Yang Jingsong, a researcher at China Tourism Academy.

The efforts by foreign destinations to curb the spread of the pandemic will also help resume confidence of Chinese outbound travelers, Yang adds.

Speaking about her future plans, Wang says she is looking forward to wearing her wedding gown while riding across the plains in Africa and posing with penguins in the Antarctic when the world is fully recovered from the pandemic.