China is expected to embrace a travel spree during the upcoming National Day holiday, the longest in history, tourists confidence overwhelms the flu epidemic concerns, an official research paper has predicted.

Although the fear for the A/H1N1 influenza remains the top concern for Chinese tourists, a brighter economic outlook makes them getting more willing to go out and spend during the eight-day vacation, or the "Golden Week", according a research paper released by the Chinese Tourism Academy, the research branch of the National Tourism Administration Friday.

Since this year's holiday, which falls between October 1 and October 8, is the longest in history, the nation is set to see travel spree during the period, said the paper.

Domestic trips are expected to grow 13 percent year on year to200 million during the eight-day holiday. Tourism revenue will exceed 100 billion yuan (US$14.71 billion), up by a quarter from a year ago.

Since this year's Golden Week is one day more than before, so the travel spending could rise from last year's 448 yuan to around500 yuan a person, the paper said.

The paper also predicted 6 million people would make overseas trips, including 4.2 million trips to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, and 1.8 million trips to foreign countries.

Japan, the Republic of Korea and Europe are the most popular overseas destinations.

(Xinhua News Agency September 6, 2009)