Hong Kong is the destination of choice for most mainland travelers this Christmas, a new survey has found.

Forty-four percent of the 2,000 people polled, all of whom have an annual income of more than 60,000 yuan, said they were planning to visit the region over the festive period.

Other popular destinations included Shanghai (10 percent), Sanya in Hainan Province (9 percent), Lijiang in Yunnan Province, Bali in Indonesia, Phuket in Thailand and Harbin in Heilongjiang Province.

Conducted by the online travel firm ctrip.com, the survey found people were most interested in places with a "strong holiday atmosphere", "good shopping environment" and "excellent hotels and beaches" when choosing a destination for their Christmas getaway.

Tang Yibo, director of Ctrip.com's holiday department, said: "Embodying both Eastern and Western cultures, Hong Kong stands out because it has not only a vibrant Christmas atmosphere, but also offers lots of shopping and entertainment facilities, and big discounts at this time of year."

The convenience of traveling between the mainland and Hong Kong is also an important factor, Tang said.

Lin Kang, deputy general manager of theoutbound tourismdepartment of the China International Travel Service Head Office, said tour packages to Hong Kong are always bestsellers at Christmas.

He said the reason was that Chinese do not have much time off work at Christmas and the New Year so they cannot travel too far.

"When it comes to the week long Spring Festival holiday, destinations like Europe will be more popular," he said.

Packages for the Spring Festival are now available, he said, with some of them to Australia and New Zealand already sold out.

Some travel experts have said the high volume of holiday bookings for this year's Spring Festival is due to the cancellation of the May Day holiday.

圣誕在即，一項最新調查顯示，香港成為很多內地游客“圣誕游”的首選目的地。

此次調查共有兩千人參加，他們的年收入均超過6萬元人民幣。其中44%的調查對象稱，他們打算去香港過圣誕。

其它一些熱門目的地包括上海（10%）、海南的三亞（9%）、云南的麗江、印尼的巴厘島、泰國的普吉島和黑龍江的哈爾濱。

該項由攜程旅行網（www.ctrip.com）開展的調查發(fā)現，人們在選擇圣誕出游地時，更青睞“節(jié)日氣氛濃厚”、“購物環(huán)境好”、“酒店舒適、有沙灘”的地方。

攜程旅行網的度假部主任唐一波說：“香港之所以受到青睞，是因為香港是東西方文化的交匯地，那里不僅節(jié)日氣氛濃厚、購物和娛樂設施齊全，還有很多歲末大打折活動。”

唐主任說，現在去香港更加方便也是一個重要因素。

中國國際旅行社總部出境游部的副總經理林康說，圣誕“香港游”套餐總是很火爆。

他說，這主要是因為中國人的圣誕和元旦假期較短，所以不能選擇太遠的出游地。

他說：“春節(jié)假期有一周的時間，所以歐洲等較遠的出游地更受歡迎。”

他說，“春節(jié)游”套餐現在可以預訂了，一些去澳大利亞和新西蘭的度假產品現已售空。

一些業(yè)內人士稱，今年春節(jié)的旅游產品預訂旺盛主要是因為明年的“五一”黃金周將被取消。