The number of inbound tourists in China has declined in the past years, partially due to worsening air pollution and lack of decent tourist facilities. (Photo : Reuters)
The China National Tourism Administration (CNTA) has announced that the country's outbound tourism is at an all-time high, with more than 100 million citizens having traveled to other countries by the end of November.
This is the first calendar year that mainland Chinese tourists surpassed the 100-million mark, and almost 90 percent of them visited Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and other Asian countries, according to China Daily.
"It is a landmark for the development of China's tourism industry. In 1998 we had only 8,430,000 outbound tourists, and now we have surpassed 100 million," said Zhang Jilin, an official of the administration.
With eased visa application processing and customized travel terms, outbound tourism has been on the rise in recent years.
An 18-percent rise in the number of tourists from the mainland was recorded between 2012 and 2013, reaching 98.19 million at the end of the period, the CNTA said.
The administration said that travels to Asia, which make up 89.5 percent of the tours, jumped by 161 percent from the previous year's number.
"The destinations that attracted more than 1 million Chinese mainland tourists each this year are South Korea, Thailand, Japan, the United States, Vietnam and Singapore," said Li Shihong, head of CNT's marketing and international cooperation department.
China Tourism Academy head Dai Bin, meanwhile, said that China's outbound tourism boom is also to the advantage of the economies of Asian countries.
"The Chinese like to say, 'a far-off relative is not as helpful as a near neighbor.' This is a very successful part of China's diplomacy with its neighbors," Dai said.
During the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Beijing in November, President Xi Jinping predicted that outbound Chinese tourists will surpass 500 million by 2019.
