(Yicai) Sept. 13 -- Outbound travel bookings by Chinese tourists are up 30 percent for the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, which runs from Sept. 15 to Sept. 17 this year, compared with the last long weekend over the Dragon Boat Festival in June, according to the latest data.

A lot of people are heading to Japan, Thailand, South Korea and Malaysia, according to Alibaba Group Holding's online booking platform Fliggy.

Short distance destinations such as Japan, Thailand, and Indonesia are very popular, online travel agency Tuniu said. For those looking to venture further afield, New Zealand, Turkey, Spain, and Portugal are hot choices.

And there is a big jump in inbound tourism too. Overseas searches for hotels in China have soared almost 20 percent from the same period before the festival last year, according to travel platform Trip.com.

Most Chinese tourists will travel in-country with Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou, Shenzhen and Chongqing the most popular destinations, according to booking platform Tongcheng. And most high-speed train ticket sales are for destinations less than three hours away.

Almost half of Shanghai-based Trip.com’s bookings are for the Mid-Autumn Festival period, more than during the last public holiday in June.

And prices are coming down. The average price of a one-way air ticket within China over the Mid-Autumn Festival is CNY770 (USD109), according to Trip.com. This is about 25 percent cheaper than the same time last year and than the three days before the week-long National Day holiday in October last year.

The Mid-Autumn Festival will be the most cost-effective time to travel among all this year’s public holidays, online travel agency Qunar said.

Editors: Shi Yi, Kim Taylor