Yuan to increase Europe appeal

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Yuan to increase Europe appeal

The yuan's appreciation against the euro following the quantitative easing

program launched in Europe on Thursday is poised to increase the continent's

popularity as a travel destination for Chinese.

The European Central Bank launched a government bond-buying program on

Thursday to address a prolonged period of low inflation.

Together with existing plans to buy private debt and funnel hundreds of billions

of euros in cheap loans to banks, the new quantitative easing program will

pump 60 billion euros ($69 billion) a month into the economy.

As a result, the euro fell by a full cent against the US dollar to $1.1511 after the

new program was announced. On Friday, the central parity rate of the yuan

strengthened to 6.9795 against the euro.

The exchange rate movements are unlikely to benefit tour groups anytime

soon, as travel agencies usually pay for packages long in advance, business

insiders said.

But travelers can still benefit, because Europe is a key region for Chinese

travelers to buy luxury items.

Chinese tourists'increasing desire to travel abroad is largely the result of

convenient visa application processing and the yuan's appreciation, said Dai

Yu, marketing director of the Tourism Department at Ctrip, a large online travel

agency.

Dai said bookings show that this year is the first time that the number of

Chinese traveling to overseas destinations has overtaken those traveling at

home during Spring Festival, which starts on Feb 19.

Gao Xue, a 30-year-old woman living in Beijing, will fly to Paris on Feb 4 and

spend 10 days in France skiing and shopping.

"I'm glad to know the euro has fallen against the yuan just before my trip, so I

can shop for more products," Gao said.

Zhang Minjie, 41, a finance director at a multinational consultancy company in

Shanghai, has just returned from a 10-day trip to Italy.

Although she had no firm shopping plans before the trip, saying she already

had everything she needs at home and had been to Italy many times, she

ended up buying another suitcase for all the purchases she made in Italy. "The euro's depreciation makes everything look even more attractive. For

example, a Moncler down jacket, which usually costs more than 10,000 yuan

in China, costs about 3,000 yuan after a discount and with the currency

depreciation factored in," Gao said.

"It is hard to resist the temptation. Given the current exchange rate, I guess I

would shop more crazily if I were in Italy," she added.