Wendy Zhang/ Shanghai Daily news

The tsunami has cooled the Southeast Asian tourism market this winter while helped domestic tours regain strength, today's Oriental Morning Post reported.
Despite local travel agencies' promotion of tours to Phuket Island in Thailand, the tours have received cold shoulders. However, domestic tours to Hainan and Yunnan have become hot properties, with the prices soaring.
"All the 200 seats in our charter flights to Hainan every day are occupied these days, with the travel cost amounting to 5,500 yuan (US$663) per person currently, up 4,000 yuan from normal times," said Zhu Husheng, director of the domestic tour department of Spring International Travel Service Co in Shanghai, adding that the cost increases of accommodation and tour guides have led to the travel cost rises.
According to the statistics of Ctrip.com, China's largest online travel portal, nearly 40 percent of tourists who had planned to go to Southeast Asian nations during the upcoming Spring Festival holiday have turned to domestic tours, with 51 percent choosing Sanya of Hainan Province and nearly 31 percent selecting Lijiang of Yunnan.
Around 80 percent of the domestic tours to Lijiang, Harbin, Sanya and Xiamen have been booked so far, and overseas tours to Kota Kinabaru and Cambodia are proving very popular, said He Jing, a spokesman with Ctrip.
Compared with pervious years, some domestic tour prices are even higher than those of overseas tours. The cost to Yunnan on the first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year (February 9) soars to 4,000 yuan, up 1,500 yuan from usual.
However, the overseas tour prices are comparatively stable, with 2,400 yuan for a tour to Hong Kong and Macau and a maximum of 3,500 yuan to Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand during the holiday.
A total of 200 to 300 people have signed up with the five-day package tours to Brunei and Sabah with a price of 5,900 yuan, and more than 200 seats in the charter flights to South Africa have been booked, said Jiang Weihao, director with the outbound tour department of Spring International Travel Service Co, adding that most of the overseas tours have been booked to date.