Ctrip, China’s largest online travel agency, has released a report on the 2014 Golden Week travel data to show that more tourists chose to go abroad to spend the holiday.

According to the report on the 2014 Golden Week travel data released by Ctrip, encouraged by favourable tourism policies and easier visa procedures, more tourists chose to go abroad to spend the holiday and the number of overseas tourists hit a record high, accounting for half of the total number of travellers in the Golden Week.

The Top Ten overseas destinations for Chinese travellers during Golden Week were Italy, Turkey, Cambodia, Maldives, United States, Indonesia, Singapore, Japan, Thailand and South Korea

The big growth has been for trips to Rome and Florence in Italy, according to Hotels.com.

It attributed the desire to travel to Italy to the country's quick visa policy implemented in July, which shortens the visa issue period to within 36 hours.

Ctrip sold more than 10,000 products online for the October holiday to 442 destinations at home and abroad.