World Bank Report Shows Spending Growth by Chinese Travelers

The World Bank released a massive report on global development indicators earlier this month, with detailed statistics now available through 2014.

The World Bank’s data clearly show China’s rise in the global travel marketplace. Chinese spending on international travel has skyrocketed since 2009, outpacing strong growth from the U.S. and Germany. Chinese air carrier departures alone jumped from 2.5 million in 2009 to 3.4 million in 2014.

Here are four important charts based on the World Bank’s data showing trends in international travel among both developed and developing nations.

China’s leisure travel spend has quadrupled since 2009

Spending by Chinese travelers on international tourism has skyrocketed since 2009, finally outpacing that of U.S. travelers in 2014. At the same time, spending has stayed at about the same level for the other top spending countries.

The U.S. has become a more popular global travel destination

The U.S. received increased international tourist visitation from 2009 to 2014, during a period where the dollar was weak against the Euro.

China’s international tourism receipts are rising

While the U.S. dominates globally when it comes to international tourism receipts, China is gaining on established tourist destinations like France, Spain and the UK.

European travelers are taking more international vacations

Interestingly, Poland and Germany have saw big increases in international tourism departures from 2009 to 2014 while China’s numbers were fairly static over that time period.