File photo: CGTN

As China continues to optimize its COVID-19 management policies, a wave of people are making plans to travel overseas during the upcoming "May Day" holiday and beyond.

China resumed outbound group tours for its citizens last week to 40 more countries including Nepal, Vietnam, Iran, France, Spain, Italy, Greece and Brazil. This was the second batch of destinations in China's pilot program to resume outbound international group tours. The first batch of 20 countries and regions was announced on February 6.

Travel agencies are offering tours to popular Southeast Asian countries, as well as Switzerland, Italy and other European countries. Reservations for popular destinations has been booked solid until June. Many people plan to take advantage of travel packages to get away over the five-day May Day holiday.

With the popularity of outbound travel, airfares are soaring. Round-trip airfares from Beijing to Bangkok during the May Day holiday are selling for 5,146 yuan ($757), an increase of 22 percent, and the price of a round-trip flight from Beijing to Singapore is 5,342 yuan, an increase of nearly 60 percent. Given these high prices, some tourists have started to find alternatives, like Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries, as well as some European countries.

(Compiled by Xu Yanan)