(Yicai) Oct. 9 -- China’s extended Golden Week break, which ended yesterday, led to a surge in outbound holiday makers, with major booking platforms such as Trip.Com saying travelers favored long-haul destinations and experiential trips.

The holiday reflected a core shift in tourism consumption towards "overall experience," said Shen Jiani, a senior researcher at Trip.Com's research institute. Travelers are no longer content with just going to a destination, but are eager to "immerse" themselves, Shen noted, adding that this change is a testament to the increasing maturity of China's tourism market.

Families made up more than 80 percent of the outbound travelers, with most hailing from the cities of Beijing, Chengdu, Shanghai, and Hangzhou, according to data from online travel agency Tuniu. Indonesia, Malaysia, and Japan also ranked among the top holiday destinations.

Some tourists opted for private car tours with a driver guide to save effort and see more sights, according to Trip.Com. Bookings in overseas markets surged by more than 120 percent this year, with those for Japan soaring 180 percent and for Sri Lanka 300 percent.

China has two main long national holidays each year. These so-called Golden Weeks -- the Spring Festival, or lunar new year, early in the year and the National Day holiday that starts on Oct. 1 -- give people time for travel, family visits, and leisure.

This month’s Golden Week extended to eight days from the usual seven after the lunar calendar-based Mid-Autumn Festival fell within the National Day holiday.

Chinese travelers booked hotels in 4,588 overseas cities during this year's holidays on travel site Qunar. Egypt saw the fastest growth in popularity, with reservations tripling from a year earlier, while those in Norway, where traffic jams caused by Chinese tourists on an island with a population of 20,000 people briefly became a hot social media topic, surged 1.2 times.

“Chinese tourists normally account for between a quarter and a third of our guests, but we estimate that over 50 percent of our guests were from China during this year's Golden Week," a receptionist at the Fihalhohi Island Resort in the Maldives told Yicai.

In China, hotel bookings jumped more than 65 percent during the holiday from a year ago, with the number of rooms reserved for two or more consecutive nights jumping by over 52 percent, according to online travel services provider Tongcheng Travel.

Editor: Martin Kadiev