The recent announcement of China's public holiday calendar has already sparked a boom in business for travel service operators.

Next year's National Day holiday in October will be eight days long, as it will coincide with Mid-Autumn Festival. The Labor Day holiday break in May will last for five days based on a schedule released by the State Council's general office on Thursday.

Soon after the announcement, searches for travel packages and hotel bookings surged, travel agencies said.

Searches for tourist itineraries related to Chinese Lunar New Year and New Year's Day soared 250 percent within an hour compared with a normal day, and many tourists have been making inquiries on long-distance outbound tourist itineraries for the Labor Day and National Day holidays, said Shanghai-based online travel operator Trip.com.

There was also a nearly triple increase in searches on hotels for the holiday, said another online travel operator Tongcheng.

Some tourists are making adjustments on their tour plans due to the longer holiday, and domestic destinations like Kunming, Chengdu, Xiamen, Chongqing, Zhangjiajie, and overseas beach resorts like Bali and Boracay are popular during the May Day holiday as their itineraries usually last four to five days, it said.

An explosive rise of tour bookings for Chinese Lunar New Year and New Year's Day has also been recorded, involving more than 70 destination countries and regions, Trip.com said.

Many decided to use their annual leave plus New Year's Day for tours and beach resorts, and Southeast Asian countries are the most popular destinations, according to Trip.com.

Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, the United States, Australia, Italy and New Zealand are among the most favored during the Spring Festival holiday, it said.

The Labor Day holiday is a big incentive for long-distance domestic tourism, Shanghai Spring Tour said.

China's northwestern regions, featuring Gobi landscapes and spring flowers, are predicted to be popular destinations during the holiday, it added.

"I didn't expect the May Day holiday could last five days, and it means I can travel further instead of neighboring cities," said Zhang Binbin, an office worker in Shanghai.

"May is a good time for traveling due to the pleasant weather and I am considering to visit Guizhou Province with my friends during the holiday," she said.

"I will check the flight price and decide whether to fly to Thailand for a short holiday plus my annual leave," said Angela Yu, a food company employee in Shanghai.