(Yicai) Sept. 13 -- The number of international flight bookings over the upcoming seven-day National Day holiday in early October has doubled from the same period last year, as the travel sector rebounds, Securities Daily reported today, citing data from online travel platform Qunar.

There are flight bookings to and hotel reservations in 1,597 cities across 144 countries and regions over the week-long break, the report said. And half of the 10 countries logging the biggest jump in bookings are located along the Silk Road. The top three, namely Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Tajikistan, are all Silk Road countries.

And more people living in third- and lower-tier smaller cities are opting to travel abroad, becoming a new driving force for the tourism sector, the report said. Countries along the Silk Road and some African nations are becoming more popular.

“Of the new destinations over the National Day holiday, more than half are in Africa,” said Cai Muzi, researcher at Qunar’s Big Data research institute. This is due to a greater number of China-Africa flight routes and the more frequent travel by business travelers and tourists.

People living in small cities in Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces are the most enthusiastic about traveling. Seventy percent of them are individuals younger than 33, which is 22 percentage points higher than in the big first-tier cities, namely Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and Guangzhou.

"More countries allowing visa-free travel as well as cheaper flights and hotels have lowered the barriers for international travel, encouraging residents from small cities to travel abroad. This has further narrowed the gap in outbound travel between these cities and first-tier metropolises," said Cai.

Editor: Kim Taylor