'We budgeted 40,000 yuan. We can save about 5,000 yuan' compared with five months ago, he said.

The euro has slid 16 per cent from 9.80 yuan on December 31 to 8.26 yuan yesterday. Expecting it to drop further, Chen hasn't exchanged the rest of his money.

Like Chen, many mainland tourists have decided to seize the chance and enjoy what may be the cheapest trip to Europe they'll ever get.

Dun Jidong - a sales manager in the tourism department of Ctrip, the mainland's leading online travel service provider - expects bookings until the end of August to be double the number in the same period last year.

'A new trend is that more and more people are beginning to choose just one country, like Britain or Greece, for their European trip,' he said.

Although the prices of airline tickets have remained the same, hotels, meals and shopping on the continent are paid for in euros and so cost much less than before.

Dun said his wife and in-laws had changed their minds about travelling to North America this summer.

'As the euro has depreciated, prices offered by travel agencies are lower, and it's cheaper to buy stuff in Europe,' he said. 'So they decided to go to Britain instead ... They think it's the best time - almost the cheapest - to go there.'

He said the industry was optimistic about the European market.

'Travel agencies have launched quite a lot of products for Europe in the market this year,' Dun said. 'They have made a huge number of reservations for flights.'

The same boom was observed by China Youth Travel Service, the country's biggest travel agency.

Diao Shuang , the firm's deputy general manager of tourism for Europe, America and Africa, said bookings between June and August have already climbed by 30 per cent from last year.

'One of the motives for many Chinese tourists to go to Europe is shopping for luxuries. Now is apparently a great opportunity for such people,' he said. 'When a Chinese travels abroad, he is usually a shopping delegate for a whole family plus maybe a dozen friends.'

Christopher Rodrigues, chairman of VisitBritain, agreed about the enormous attraction a cheaper currency exerts.

'We found last year the majority of the world dropped in business, but we actually increased our numbers, because the pound was relatively lower valued,' he said on the sidelines of the Global Travel and Tourism Summit in Beijing last month.

He forecast about 170,000 Chinese travellers would visit Britain this year, which would account for 8 per cent of the outbound market.

Besides a weaker euro, industry insiders believe the weather and economic recovery are contributing to the boom in outbound travel.

Dun noted that many Chinese chose to stay at home in March and April - the season when mainland tourists usually go to Japan to see the cherry blossoms or to Thailand for the Songkran festival - because the weather was colder than usual.

'Their demand for travelling was revived when the weather finally got warm in May,' he said.

Li Shuang , deputy general manager of BTG Outbound Tours, said the improvement of the overall economy has stimulated China's outbound tourism this year.

'Even in bad economic circumstances last year, the demand for outbound tourism remained, although it was held back for a while by the global economic recession. This year the economy has improved, and people's willingness to go abroad has begun to grow,' he said.

According to the China Outbound Tourism Research Institute, the country's outbound market will make up 10 per cent of international tourism over the next decade. When global tourism shrank because of the economic downturn last year, China's outbound tourism still rose 4 per cent, both in the number of travellers and their spending.

The World Travel and Tourism Council expects China to spend about US$580 billion on travel and tourism this year, second only to the US. The mainland is also projected to grow fastest in terms of capital investment in the tourism industry throughout the next decade.

This year, meanwhile, many Chinese, as they have grown wealthier, have picked Europe as the destination of choice, whether for honeymoons or summer holidays, and the euro's free fall is ensuring that decision is an easy one to make.