Freelancer Wu Xiaohua eagerly enquired about the torch relay traveling service at Nanhu International Travel Agency (Nanhu) in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province.
"The torch relay is a significant global event prior to the Beijing Olympic Games. I want to witness this historic moment by joining a tour group to follow the torch relay route," she told China News Service.
Travel agencies in Beijing have released over 40 specially designed tour programs covering 19 overseas cities along the torch relay route. The price of outbound torch relay observing groups ranges from 10,000 yuan ($1,400) to 27,000 yuan, which is 10 percent higher than the price of ordinary tourist routes, according to Beijing Morning Post.
Hua Yuan International Travel Service (Hua Yuan) launched 19 Olympic flame-observing programs. The first gets going on April 2.
The agency's eight-day tour packages to Turkey or Great Britain cost 15,800 yuan and 18,800 yuan respectively.
China International Travel Service Head Office (CITS) also released 22 outbound tourist programs, including the Athens lighting ceremony tour group that set off on March 24. China Comfort International Travel Service organized the Greece lighting ceremony observing group that started out on March 22.
According to Hua Yuan, the groups travel abroad for four to eight days on average. Most of the destinations are popular tourist cities such as London, Paris, Istanbul, and San Francisco.
"Less popular tourist cities like Tanzania's capital Dar es Salaam, Oman's capital Muscat, and Pyongyang, the capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, have become hot new destinations by virtue of the torch relay," said Sun Lichan, head of Hua Yuan's marketing department.
In Beiijng, Guangzhou, and other major cities, many residents swarmed to travel agencies to consult about domestic tour packages linked with the Olympic torch relay.
"I'll return to my home city Qingdao to watch the Olympic torch relay and visit relatives and old friends there," a man surnamed Jiang, who has been staying in Beijing for three years, told Beijing Morning Post.
Zheng Nianjun, deputy general manager of Nanhu, said: "The Olympic torch relay has become a major focus of many tourists this year. It covers major tourist cities at home and abroad and will give China's off-season a boost."
