Market Trends and Forecast of Chinese Outbound Tourism

Abstract

Over the last two decades, the global tourism destinations have witnessed a drastic growth in Chinese visitors. As the largest outbound tourism market since 2012, China remained on the top of the global spenders' list with a tourism expenditure of US$ 129 billion in 2013, an increase of almost tenfold since 2000, when it ranked 7th. In fact, China has surpassed the second and third largest spenders the US and Germany with a gap stretched to over US$ 42 billion in 2013 1 . The initial development of Chinese outbound tourism was largely driven by the easing restrictions on foreign travel. Prior to 1983, Chinese citizens were only allowed to travel overseas for official, education, and business purposes. As a milestone, visiting family members in Hong Kong and Macao was allowed in 1983. By 1990, travelling on package tours organised by the Chinese Travel Service (CTS) to Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia has become possible 2, 3 . In 1997, the Approved Destination Status (ADS) scheme was officially recognised, allowing Chinese leisure travellers to join approved group tours to visitdestinations where a bilateral agreement between the governments has been established 4 . By 1999, there were 9 nations on the ADS list, which has rapidly expanded to over 140 destinations by 2014. In addition to the ADS scheme, Chinese citizens have been also able to apply for individual visas subject to a string of conditions depending on the destinations.