E M Najeeb, chairman, GITC, told Business Standard:  "China seems to be toppling Singapore and Dubai's hold over leisure travellers. Earlier, the leisure travellers used to flock these cities in the Far East and the Gulf. This is seeing a change, of late."

According to Najeeb, GITC has lined up customised packages, christened 'China Tour', and they include special packages to Beijing, Tiananmen Square , The Forbidden City, Great Wall of China , The Summer Palace and exotic cruises along the Huang Pu River.

The packages start from Rs 57,000 per person for a four-days-and-five-nights travel. "Besides, the regular China Tour packages, we have also roped in corporates, mostly from Kerala, offering their best performing employees   'incentive tours' to China," he added.

The new leisure travel packages include tours to the Chinese capital, along with Shanghai, which is now emerging as the preferred holiday destination for this part of the world.

Najeeb added that the leisure traveller looks for culture and heritage, shopping avenues and cuisine. China has all that.  "This apart, people who look for shopping get all they want in China, and that too at a value for money,"  he said.

"Last year, GITC had taken more than 600 tourists from Kerala to China and the numbers are expected to go up to 1000 this year, with travellers showing a special interest in culture tours, Chinese cuisine and life style' packages," he added.

The destination management company introduced its China tour packages two years ago and sent around 350 tourists to China in the first year.