Mainland Chinese tourists spent $215 billion traveling abroad in 2015, 53% more than in 2014, according to a report on travel and tourism from the World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF) last week. Chinese spending accounted for 17% of all consumption by international customers, said the report.
More than 120 million Chinese tourists made overseas trips in 2015, up 10.09% year-on-year. The US, Japan, Republic of Korea and Britain saw the biggest increases in Chines tourist arrivals last year.
According to the report, Tokyo, Seoul, Bangkok, Osaka, Jeju Island, Nagoya, Pattaya, Singapore, Inchon and Busan were the top 10 most preferred cities for Chinese tourist’s short-distance outbound travel.
Paris, Rome, Los Angeles, Sydney, London, Venice, Washington, New York, Florence and Frankfurt were the 10 most favored long-distance destinations.
Japan was one of the biggest beneficiaries from China’s outbound travel boom last year due to the devaluation of Japanese currency and a relaxed visa policy for Chinese tourists, the council said. Spending by Chinese tourists in Japan grew by almost half compared with 2014.