'Game of Thrones' shooting location new favorite destination for Chinese fans: agency

Visiting shooting locations of the TV hit Game of Thrones has become a fad among young Chinese viewers, according to leading travel agency data.

Ctrip, China's online travel agency, sent a report to the Global Times via e-mail on Wednesday, saying it has provided travel packages to six major shooting locations for the show, including Croatia, the US, Spain and Iceland.

The report states that the number of Chinese tourists booking Ctrip packages to the six locations has increased by 72 percent year-on-year.

The number of tourists who have booked Ctrip's Game of Thrones-themed travel packages has increased by 60 percent year-on-year for the coming summer period.

Many young people are keen to explore more of the show with colleagues, friends or partners who are also fans of the show, the report said.

But 18 percent of them prefer to visit those locations alone.

In April, an online Chinese celebrity who goes by gudabaihua, who has 12.13 million followers, posted photos of his trip to Northern Ireland, one of the locations of the TV series, on Chinese social media Weibo. Many people said they were jealous of him and wanted to go as well.

During the International Workers' Day holidays, the number of Chinese tourists who visited the film locations increased remarkably. The most expensive travel package costs $4,789.

Among them, the number of tourists to Croatia who booked on Ctrip rose by 450 percent year-on-year, the biggest and fastest growth among all six sites. The number of tourists to Iceland increased 140 percent, and those who visited Morocco increased 107 percent. (Editor: Li Yan)