With the approach of the Spring Festival holidays, which will start on Jan. 27, 2017, Chinese tourists are expected to embark on a new round of spending worldwide.

An analysis of international air ticket booking by the Daily Economic News indicates that Chinese tourists will fly to 174 countries and regions during the holiday, and they will spend an average of 9.2 days on their trips.

Airline companies have opened new international routes to cater to Spring Festival travelers. China Southern Airlines, for example, has shifted 30 percent of its capacity to international routes. Hainan Airlines and China Eastern Airlines are also making efforts to compete in international non-stop routes.

China has been the world's largest source of outbound tourists for four consecutive years, and its contribution to global tourism revenue has exceeded 13 percent. According to an analysis of international flight ticket data by Ctrip.com, a major Chinese travel site, Bangkok, Tokyo and Singapore are the most popular destinations among Chinese tourists.

Based on data from the past two years, the analysis indicates that China's outbound tourists are expected to reach 6 million during the 2017 Spring Festival holiday, with per capita spending exceeding 15,000 RMB. This means that, during the Spring Festival period, Chinese tourists will spend 100 billion RMB overseas.

Faced with these numbers, domestic airlines including China Southern Airlines, Hainan Airlines and Spring Airlines have all upped their offerings of international non-stop routes. Since December, China Southern Airlines has opened two new international routes – one from Guangzhou to Toronto, Candda, and another from Guangzhou to Adelaide, Australia. The company said it has confidence in the two cities' tourism markets.

On Dec. 2, Hainan Airlines opened a direct route from Beijing to Las Vegas, which is the first direct flight from the Chinese mainland to Las Vegas. China Eastern Airlines has opened new international routes from Shanghai to Chicago, Madrid, Amsterdam and St. Petersburg among others. Media reports have noted that "adding so many long international routes within one year is very rare in the history of China Eastern Airlines."