BIZCHINA / Top Biz News
China leads Asia in outbound tourism
By Xin Dingding (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-12-14 08:39
China is consolidating its status as Asia's largest outbound tourism
market as 28.55 million people travelled abroad in the first 10 months of
this year.
The State Tourism Administration said on its website that the number is
10.8 per cent more than for the same period last year.
Shao Qiwei, head of the administration, said it is a result of the
tourism industry's opening up since China's entry into the World Trade
Organization (WTO)(find more in WTO package) in 2001.
Mainland travellers can now visit 132 countries and regions, up from 18
in 2001, including the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions.
In 2001, 12.13 million Chinese travelled overseas. Last year, the number
soared to 31 million.
In the past five years, China has overtaken Japan to become the largest
source of outbound travellers in Asia.
The administration, however, has not provided figures on the expenditure
of Chinese outbound travellers.
In the latest list of the world's leading outbound tourism markets, based
on statistics in 2004, the World Tourism Organization placed China behind
Japan in terms of expenditure.
China ranked seventh and Japan fourth.
China is also gaining appeal as a top tourist destination.
Official statistics show that China received 46.8 million tourists last
year, ranking fourth globally. The tourists spent a total of US$29.3
billion, placing China sixth globally.
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