Most Chinese tourists prefer to travel on their own instead of following arrangements set by travel agencies, a senior tourism official said.
More than 4 billion visits have been made by Chinese travelers within China in 2015, with more than 3.2 billion of those tourists traveling on their own or have taken road trips using their own cars, Li Jinzao, director of China's National Tourism Administration, told state-owned China Daily on Friday.
"Their average spending surpassed 1,000 yuan ($153)," Li said, adding that the number signals China's entry into an era of mass tourism in which travel is no longer limited to the rich.
The trend also affects the foreign tourism sector. In a report by Chinese tourism information-sharing websites Mafengwo.cn and Zuzuche.com, car rentals by Chinese tourists overseas reached 13.13 billion yuan in 2015 with the market expected to hit 88.6 percent of growth this year.
Yu Dunde, CEO of travel agency Tuniu, said that going on their own provides tourists with more choices and gives travel agencies new opportunities rather than reduce them.
"We didn't provide travel packages directly, but we offer services at cheaper prices," Yu said during the first World Conference on Tourism for Development in Beijing on Thursday. "For individual travelers, they also need to book hotels and air tickets, or pay entrance ticket fees for tourism attractions. And the price they pay could be very high."
According to a report by the National Tourism Administration on tourism development, domestic tourist trips are expected to reach 6.8 billion by 2020.
"In 2015, the country recorded more than 4.1 billion domestic tourist trips," said Li. "However, even though we are a large country, the average person made only three visits in 2015."
Internationally, a country is considered large for tourism when its individual average surpasses nine or 10 visits.
"So if every Chinese made one more trip a year, we could have another 1 billion trips," he added.