Published on : Wednesday, August 1, 2018
According to Chris Yoshii, the vice president and global director of leisure and cultural services for AECOM, “Fundamentally, you’ve got 1.3 billion Chinese, and about 300 million more are middle class than 10 years ago. They’re very eager to go out into the world and see different places, especially famous ones. The numbers will continue to grow at double-digit rates throughout the next decade. We’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg.”
These new breed of travelers like to do and see new things at a steady pace. Beyond that, they’re diversified. Wealthy residents from first-tier cities have developed a taste for adventure, while travel newbies from smaller markets want to stay closer to home – first exploring other Chinese cities, and then nearby countries like Thailand or Vietnam for their first out-of-country experience. Once they start traveling abroad though, Chinese tourists keep moving.
The Chinese outbound travel market is the world’s biggest now. However, only eight percent of Chinese residents have passports. This market is expected to grow in the coming few years.
In spite of this growth, Chinese citizens still face some practical hurdles while visiting numerous global destinations. The country’s passport ranks only 67th in the Global Passport Index; 129 states worldwide still require Chinese travelers to obtain a tourist visa before visiting. But some countries have taken steps to simplify the process of entry and are witnessing healthy, growing numbers of Chinese tourists, including the United States, Morocco, Tunisia, Japan and Indonesia.
In contrast, the Maldives, South Korea and Thailand all saw drops in Chinese visitors due to inter-governmental tensions. For example, half as many Mainland Chinese visited South Korea in 2017 than a year earlier, and that China “blocked tour groups” because the two countries were “locked in a political row.”
However, that didn’t end relations, and South Korea is still ranked the third most popular destination for Mainland Chinese tourists.
Tags: chinese visitors